When Toby Keith was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, he was honored with tribute performances by Blake Shelton, Post Malone and Eric Church. It was Church who performed an acoustic, stripped-down version of “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” one of Keith’s numerous No. 1 hits.

Keith wrote the song, by himself, inspired by a conversation he had with Clint Eastwood. The song was later used by Eastwood for his movie, The Mule, out in 2018.

“Toby, as a songwriter, I never heard him write about anything that wasn’t exactly who he was, and what he was living at that time,” Church said ahead of his performance. “And I remember when I heard this song for the first time, and it was when Toby had not been on radio much for a little bit of time, and I heard this song. I was driving around Nashville and this song came on. It was so representative of where he was in his life. It was striking as a songwriter.

“And as a songwriter, it stopped me and stunned me,” he continued.” When they asked me to do this, I said I wanted to do this song, my first thought was that I want nothing more than for Toby to have been able to do this song tonight. But I’m gonna do my best.”

@everythingnash @ericchurch performed a touching tribute to @tobykeithofficial ♬ original sound – EverythingNash

Church wasn’t the only one who got emotional honoring Keith. Alabama‘s Randy Owen inducted Keith, sharing an emotional tribute to the country music legend.

“This is about a man that I dearly loved, and I always felt like he dearly loved me, and he truly cared about me,” Owen said. “When we were filming the CMT Giants, I was doing real good, until I went around and saw his name on a dressing room, knowing that he couldn’t be there. That’s how much I felt like he loved me, and the group, Alabama. So I’ll always be thankful to Toby for caring so much. He was absolutely emphatic that he was going to make that taping, even though his health didn’t allow him to … He loved his country, he loved his family. He proved that over and over again.”

It was Keith’s wife, Tricia Covel, who spoke on his behalf, giving a heartfelt, tearful speech about his impact on country music, and the profound loss her family feels in his absence.

“There will never be another Toby Keith,” she said. “The kids and I, our family, and all of our friends, we’re all broken-hearted that he’s not here to be able to accept this. The grief is not something we can just let pass. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know him personally, he made you feel like you were his best friend when he talked with you … Toby will live and be loved forever through his music, and the legacy that he left, and I’m so thankful and so grateful to have spent the time, 43 years, with him. It’s a big number, and I’m so proud that I can say that I shared that with him.”

Keith was inducted along with John Anderson and guitar legend James Burton.