Video: Toby Keith pays tribute to Wayman Tisdale
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Toby Keith pays tribute to the late Wayman Tisdale with the new music video to his song “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song).” The video premiered exclusively this morning on CMT.
The new single may be the most personal and emotionally raw offering of the country music star’s entire career. “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” and its accompanying video offer a heartfelt homage to Tisdale, whom Keith considered a close friend.
An all-American basketball player for Oklahoma and NBA star before launching a second career as a jazz bassist, Tisdale passed away unexpectedly in May from complications resulting from cancer treatments that seemed to have left him with a clean bill of health, according to a news release.
For Keith, Tisdale’s death was a terrible blow unlike anything he’d experienced before, the release states. He poured his emotions into music, writing a song he intended to play at Tisdale’s funeral, but the wound was still too fresh.
“I’ve had some loss in my life, of course my dad, but that’s different,” Keith says in the release. “I’ve lost some friends and acquaintances along the way, but this one was very difficult for me. I wrote this for (the funeral), but I could not get through it. I ended up doing Willie’s ‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground’ because I wasn’t attached to that. It was weeks before I could make it all the way through the song. It was tough on me.”
“Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” co-produced by Mark Wright, was the most added song at country radio last week, according to Country Aircheck/Mediabase. And the video has been added by CMT in Hot Shot Rotation, and by GAC in its Turbo Track slot.
The video features video and photos of Tisdale from both his careers, as well as scenes of him hanging out with Keith, spending time with his family and getting around on his prosthetic limb after losing a leg to cancer. Those images are intertwined with scenes of Keith singing and playing guitar and jazz star Dave Koz, another friend of Tisdale’s who plays on the track, wailing away on his saxophone.
The video will have you welling up with emotion, particularly if you are an Oklahoman and/or a fan who was touched by Tisdale’s life and luminous smile. It is a fitting visual to go with the tearjerking song.
“Cryin’ For Me” is the second single from Keith’s recently released chart-topping “American Ride” album, following the smash No. 1 title track.
Keith’s “America’s Toughest Tour” continues to draw standing-room-only crowds, and the Norman resident will embark on his first European tour this month.
-BAM
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[...] Oklahoman’s Brandy McDonnell noted that Keith wrote the song “he intended to play at Tisdale’s funeral, but the wound was still too fresh.” “I’ve had some loss in my life, of course my dad, but that’s different,” Keith [...]
This is a beautiful song, it makes me cry everytime I hear it, but it also makes me stop and think and thank GOD for every day and everything I have, the love of family, good friends, and to live every day to it’s fullest….GOD bless all of you
i think toby is an awesome singer and this song is so heartfelt and emotional u can’t help but to feel his pain, and the video is unbelievable lets hear it for toby paying tribute to a great man
My name is Ruth—I lost grand daughter to cancer this year
I know the feeling of calling the cell phone to hear her voice.
Most heart felt song I’ve ever heard.—Way to go Toby
This song is so sad. It makes me tear up everytime I hear it. I am crying for me for all the family members I have lost as well as for Toby.