White Trash With Money

"Get Drunk and Be Somebody"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick

I've heard that title my whole life. I'm sure it's been written somewhere, but I've never heard it before. I write a lot of blue collar type songs so I started messing around with it. Me and Scotty were sitting on the bus one afternoon, I told him we've been working our butts off, we ought to get some beer tonight, get drunk and be somebody. He said, 'I want to write that.' I told him I'd already been thinking about it and we wrote it. If it's a hit we can come back with a sequel about getting drunk, waking up with a hangover and deciding tonight I'm gonna go get drunk and be somebody else.

"A Little Too Late"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon

This is the song on the album that jumps out at me. It's the one you watered and sprinkled fertilizer on in the studio and it bloomed. It blossomed right before our eyes. You like sitting around with a guitar and playing it. It sounds simple, which is a good quality sometimes, but I was not sure when we wrote it whether it was a single or not. Once we got in the studio and started cutting it everyone said, "Man, this sounds ridiculously good." So we went to the point of hiring a string arranger from Argentina to come in to L.A. and put the strings behind it. To me, it sounds like a classic.

"Can’t Buy You Money"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick

Everyone's heard that saying about how all the money in the world can't buy you happiness. We switched it around and it created a whole new world for us to write about. Another blue collar kind of thing. All I had to do is piece it together. My favorite line is, "We'd save it all up for a rainy day, but it's always sunny." His world's perfect -- his kids, his wife -- it's always sunny but they're broke, broke, broke. He's taking it all in stride and laughing about it.

"Crash Here Tonight"
Toby Keith

I'd never done a ballad that slow that was that tender. About the closest thing to it was "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This," but even that was still not quite this slow. It's so tender, though, I think it would still sell records.

"Grain Of Salt"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick

You gotta have a tequila song. There are some great lines on it I like. "By now you've observed I got a little overserved last night." It's just what it is. Good bar song. My kind of thing.

"I Ain’t Already There"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon

Me, Scotty and Dean holed up in a hotel in Albuquerque for a couple days and wrote about four or five songs. This is a really unique, different kind of song. A songwriter's song. The kind of song only a mother could love. It's a full circle deal between this guy and this girl. A vicious cycle they both keep going back to. He can't wait to get there, he gets there and it isn't very long until they're tired of each other again. Now he's headed home and the only bad thing is he isn't there yet. But only a creator could love that one.

"Note To Self"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon

This is a real strange song. Dark. People who like it love it, people who like really straight commercial music haven't liked it as much. Maybe more so than the last song, one only a creator could love. But I'm a songwriter so when I get to 12 I quit and call it good. That's always been my game plan. We record until we get to 12. If they suck, they suck. If they're good, they're good. We just live with the results. Probably the darkest song on the album.

"Too Far This Time"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon

I wasn't going to put this one on the album because I have a song called "A Little Too Late" and this one was "A Little Too Far." It shows off my vocal range when I go up an octave at the end, so the singing experience alone was enough to get it on the album. It'll probably never be a single but it's a good album cut.

"Ain’t No Right Way"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick/Dean Dillon
This song is a social commentary. It's just about life and how people view the difference between right and wrong. Even if you don't agree with some of the subjects in here, there are people who do. The subject matter is probably a little too strong for it to ever be heard on the radio. We just write them and when we get to 12 we quit.

"Brand New Bow"
Toby Keith

We put three bus songs on here. Simple little old ditties that you laugh at. Let's tie a bow around the same old thing.

"Hell No"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick

Of the three, this could be a single. I could hear it being played on the radio.

"Runnin’ Block"
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick

You got two buddies in high school and one of them gets a date but she's bringing her sister. You know if she's got her sister with her you're not going to score. So you try to get one of your buddies to block for you. You don't have to do anything with her, you just have to entertain long enough for your buddy to get his shot. It's a pretty bold stab, but it's just a bus song. It's all meant to be taken in fun.