--- title: Stephen Colbert Covers Toby Keith Song As Good As I Once Was: Video description: He performed "As Good As I Once Was" at the Songwriter Hall of Fame induction canonical: https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-19T19:24:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:17.283Z og:title: And Then Here's Stephen Colbert Covering a Toby Keith Song og:description: He performed "As Good As I Once Was" at the Songwriter Hall of Fame induction og:url: https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: And Then Here's Stephen Colbert Covering a Toby Keith Song twitter:description: He performed "As Good As I Once Was" at the Songwriter Hall of Fame induction twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # And Then Here's Stephen Colbert Covering a Toby Keith Song ## Video: The Best of Stephen Colbert [Watch (HLS stream): The Best of Stephen Colbert](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PNJDP9f3.m3u8) (4:30)  _Published 2014-04-10. The next host of_ by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 19, 2015 7:24 PM CUT by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 19, 2015 7:24 PM CUT For some reason, Stephen Colbert made a surprise appearance at the 46th annual Songwriter Hall Of Fame awards dinner Thursday night, where he inducted country icon Toby Keith. To honor the singer, Colbert did a little performance of his own, covering “As Good As I Once Was.” Decked out in a denim jacket and a black cowboy hat, Colbert busted out his best twangy singing, backed by a full band. This all may seem pretty unexpected, but Keith has [appeared ](http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/s2ax4o/toby-keith "undefined")on Colbert’s show [several times ](http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/ozfwje/toby-keith "undefined")over the years, so it’s entirely possible they’ve become pals. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/"},"headline":"And Then Here's Stephen Colbert Covering a Toby Keith Song","datePublished":"2015-06-19T19:24:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:17.283Z","description":"He performed \"As Good As I Once Was\" at the Songwriter Hall of Fame induction","url":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/","name":"And Then Here's Stephen Colbert Covering a Toby Keith Song"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Best of Stephen Colbert","description":"The next host of","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PNJDP9f3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-10T21:49:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PNJDP9f3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/","duration":"PT4M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3928434/stephen-colbert-toby-keith-cover/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```