Late Toby Keith Honored by Country Stars in TV Special: Highlights

Though Toby Keith took his final breath earlier this year, his spirit is alive — and what Keith did best — kicking ass on NBC’s much-anticipated tribute concert that airs tonight.

Toby Keith: American Icon was filmed before a sellout crowd at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in late July, and a flock of his famous friends and admirers, including Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Eric Church and Lainey Wilson, showed up to honor the country legend.

Though, naturally, there were tearful moments, the evening was mostly a joyful celebration of Keith, who succumbed to stomach cancer, at age 62, on Feb. 5 in his native Oklahoma. He left behind a treasure trove of music that reflect his rare combination of qualities — rowdy showman, passionate patriot, tender family man, gifted wordsmith — and all were elevated during the two-hour event.

PEOPLE had a prime seat in the arena, and here are can’t-miss highlights that viewers can look forward to:

Church’s Gratitude

One of the maverick superstars who came after Keith, Eric Church reminisces to the audience about his early days when he couldn’t get a gig. “Toby Keith was the guy that called,” Church recollects, “and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come play shows with me?’” Church is now about the same age as Keith was when he made that offer, which makes the song that Church performs, “I’m Not as Good as I Once Was,” a perfect match.

 “You Are Truth”

Ashley McBryde pays homage to Keith’s Songwriters Hall of Fame career, touching her heart and declaring: “Being a songwriter is about being truthful, and Toby, you are truth.” Her musical contribution is a stirring delivery of “I Wish I Didn’t Know Now.”

Earlier, on the red carpet, McBryde recalled opening for Keith in her early-career days. “He made sure that I was seen and that I was comfortable,” she told PEOPLE. “And in doing that, he taught a very green, very young artist how to treat people. Now my experience with Toby gets to be other artists’ experiences with me.”

Ride ‘Em, Lainey

Wilson knows how to make a memorable entrance: She first appears at the rear of the arena on the back of Cowboy, the horse she’s ridden as a co-star on blockbuster TV drama Yellowstone. Horse and rider follow a meandering trail to the lip of the stage, where Wilson dismounts to join Jamey Johnson for a rousing duet of — what else? — “Beer for My Horses.”

Changing Hats

Tapped to sing “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” Luke Bryan abandons his trademark ball cap for a black cowboy hat, and he tells its touching backstory, recalling how he cut his teeth singing Toby Keith songs in Georgia bars. His sister, who died in 2007, gave him the cowboy hat to wear during that early era.

“I used to wear this hat every night,” Bryan explains, “and ever since I lost my sister, I haven’t put this hat onstage in a lot of years … and I was walking out of the house [tonight], and I said, you know what, I’m just an old country boy from Georgia, but Toby Keith certainly made me want to be a cowboy.”

 Jelly Roll’s Tearjerker

Keith’s wise lyrics for a good life, contained in “My List,” take on even more meaning now that their writer is gone: “I won’t break my back for a million bucks / I can’t take to my grave / So why put off for tomorrow / What I could get done today.”

Introducing the song, Jelly Roll shares that Keith “inspired me to be a better father,” and he dedicates it to Keith’s family, who sit on one side of the stage (below a giant U.S. flag and a scaffold filled with soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell). Jelly delivers the lyrics with subdued authority, bringing many in the audience, including Keith’s son, Stelen Covel, to tears.

Rising to the Challenge

Krystal Keith, the honoree’s 38-year-old daughter, soars through the poignant life lessons of “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” despite the worry she expressed, earlier on the red carpet, about even getting through the song. Toby Keith memorably performed it last fall at the People’s Choice Country Awards.

The show’s producers, Krystal Keith explained, picked it for her to sing, and “I had to really just kind of talk myself into it. It’s definitely a heart-wrenching song.” (Even more so, given Keith’s two-year battle with cancer. He wrote the song and originally sang it for the 2018 Clint Eastwood film, The Mule.)

Let’s Have a Party!

A makeshift bar on the side of the stage opposite the Keith family keeps the party vibes flowing throughout the evening; the artists all gather there after their performances.

But leave it to merrymaker Tyler Hubbard to move the party-hearty atmosphere to center stage with a raucous delivery of “Red Solo Cup.” One of the few Keith hits that he did not write, he famously called it “the stupidest song that I have ever heard in my life,” but also “freakin’ awesome.” The songs four writers, Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Brad Warren and Brett Warren, join Hubbard (as they joined Keith on the original recording), along with Jordan Davis, HARDY and Jelly Roll.

Show Stealer

Perhaps the most surprising moment of the evening occurs when Jelly Roll announces Keith had “one more great performance” that had yet to be seen. Jelly then introduces a video of the late artist in his final studio session recording “Ships That Don’t Come In” for HARDY’s Hixtape Volume 3, which celebrates the music of the late Joe Diffie. In those brief three minutes, Keith steals the show with his interpretation of the song’s achingly wistful lyrics.

Call to Duty

Keith’s close friend Trace Adkins is tapped for the late artist’s iconic salute to the military, “American Soldier,” and the moment is made even more dramatic by the appearance onstage of a U.S. Army color guard preceding the performance.

Earlier, on the red carpet, Adkins said Keith’s “love for the men and women who serve this country was absolutely genuine. To be able to sing this song that meant so much to him means the world to me, too.”

Red, White and Blue Finale

Keith’s feisty signature song, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” was the last song he performed publicly, at each of his trio of final concerts last December in Las Vegas. It closes out the tribute, as well, and perhaps it’s appropriate that Parker McCollum, among the bright stars of country’s new generation, takes the helm.

Though he never met Keith, McCollum explained on the red carpet that he grew up a huge fan, and he uses Keith’s career and life as a source of inspiration: “I’ve thought about how many times he probably had days that he was gonna throw in a towel. I’m sure he felt those things. But that man embodies what it takes to make country music in this town.”

McCollum doesn’t have to go it alone with his daunting assignment: Not only does the entire cast join him on the second verse, but the majority of the capacity crowd also lustily proves they know every last word of the flag-waving anthem.

Toby Keith: American Icon, a two-hour special, airs at 9 p.m. ET/8 CT Wednesday on NBC, and it will begin streaming on Thursday on Peacock. A portion of concert ticket sales have been donated to The Toby Keith Foundation’s OK Kids Korral — a cost-free home in Oklahoma City for families of children dealing with critical illnesses — and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.