Post Malone's slow but steady shift to country music continued on Saturday (March 9) during his headlining gig at the American Rodeo in Arlington, Texas. That night Post Malone —real name Austin Richard Post— sang the late Toby Keith's "As Good As I Once Was" as a solo, acoustic number.
Fan-shot footage of the Keith tribute made it onto social media, with one of the best clips being the YouTube upload below.
Like most, Post Malone can't match Keith's baritone delivery. However, the rap and pop superstar does indeed sound like a country crooner when tackling a No. 1 hit from 2005.
Post Malone's been pivoting toward country music for a while now. His first charting country song came last year via his gravelly-voiced cover of Joe Diffie's "Pickup Man" which features vocals from the late Diffie via his 2006 re-recording of the cheeky 1994 hit. Post Malone sang it at the 2023 CMA Awards as part of a Diffie medley featuring Hardy and Morgan Wallen.
More recently, Post Malone teased a country song with a guest vocalist who sounds an awful lot like Luke Combs— who's among one of the social media post's most ecstatic commenters.
Plus, there's a clip of Post Malone and Ernest singing Keith's "Courtesy of Red, White & Blue (The Angry American)" that's been making the rounds.
Post Malone isn't the only artist to pay tribute to Keith in their live set. Jelly Roll's been covering "Should've Been a Cowboy" for a while now and did so during his career-affirming headlining gig last Wednesday (March 6) at RodeoHouston.
"I could only think of one person when I pulled up to NRG tonight," Jelly Roll said during his RodeoHouston set (as quoted by WBWN). "And it made me think of one of the greatest cowboys that ever lived, and I said, 'We're gonna honor him.'"
