Toby probably wasn't the guy you wanted to mess with. The legendary Toby Keith passed away back in February after a two-year battle with stomach cancer, and since then his friends and colleagues have come forward with some incredible memories and stories of the Big Dog Daddy. And it seems like they can all be pretty much summed up in the same way: He was a badass. Of course one of Toby's hits, "As Good As I Once Was," was all about his ability to hold his own in a bar fight when he needed to. And apparently there was quite a bit of truth to that one. Cledus T. Judd, the country singer best known for his parody songs like "I Love NASCAR" and "Bake Me A Country Ham," recently joined Tracy Lawrence for an episode of his TL's Road House podcast, where he recalled a night out in Nashville when Toby had to put an ass whoopin' on somebody who kept bothering them. According to Cledus, it started out while they were at dinner and a guy came up to Toby wanting an autograph. And Toby agreed to sign it, but only after they finished eating - which apparently upset the annoying autograph-seeker. The group then moved to a different bar, and the same guy shows up and once again approaches them: "Here comes that guy again. Different bar, different place, here he come again. Comes up to Toby and says something real smart and Toby said, 'The best thing you can do is probably go enjoy your evening just like we're gonna enjoy ours.'" Sounds like good advice. And let's be honest, I'm sure Toby meant it as a warning for the guy's own safety. But unfortunately for him, it wasn't a warning that he decided to follow. The group moves on to yet another bar. Cledus says they were at the bar in Printer's Alley in Nashville where Rascal Flatts got their start, so I assume he's thinking of the Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar, which closed in 2014. The country boy band got their start there, and even played one final show at the Fiddle and Steel when the bar closed. Well of course the same guy shows up once again at Fiddle and Steel - and Cledus just knew that it wasn't going to end well: "I thought, this ain't gonna be good here, cause we're all hammered, he's hammered. And Toby's 6'4" and this guy's 5-foot nothing, and it's going to be ugly." And the guy decided to make a move that he probably ended up regretting, insulting Toby and Cledus for their frosted tips: "I'll never forget it as long as I live, he come over that our table and he looked at Toby and he looked at me and he said, 'I just got one quick question before I get out of here.' And Toby didn't really acknowledge him, and the guy said, 'How much y'all spend on bleach to bleach y'all's hair so y'all look like a tag team bunch of wrestlers?' I'll never forget it, talking about me and Toby. And I thought, 'Well this is going to be the end of your life right here.'" Sure enough, Toby didn't take too kindly to the insult, and Cledus said the next thing he knew, Toby had the guy by his belt loops "like he was carrying a 12-pack of beer out of a convenience store." "This guy was on his hands and knees kicking like a little puppet, and Toby was just toting him out through there." Cledus says at that point he wanted to show Toby that he had his back, so he decided to get his own licks in on the guy too: "I come up under that guy, and I mean when I hit, my hand exploded, blood went everywhere, it made the loudest thump you ever heard... And Toby got him out, and I said, 'Don't worry about it, I got him Toby, I got him good for you.' We was sitting over there, and I was wrapping my hand up, and it was awful. And I said, 'I just didn't want you to think for one minute that I didn't have your back.'" But there was part of the story that Cledus never got the chance to admit to Toby: When he went to hit the guy, he missed and actually hurt his hand on the concrete floor instead. Hey, at least he was willing to jump in there, which I'm sure is what Toby appreciated the most. But as I was listening to this story, I couldn't help but remember a story from another artist about Toby throwing a guy out of the same bar. Eric Church recalled the first time he met Toby, which came when he was talking into the Fiddle and Steel and Toby was dragging a guy out: "Toby had taken the guy harassing the patrons and had drug him by his shirt collar all the way down the bar. And as I walked in the door, the guy dropped in front of me, and I look up and there’s Toby Keith, and I kinda stuck out my hand and said, 'Hi.' Toby was always a guy that did things his own way, and I think of that, I think of that fondly now when I think of him. We got to be friends later and toured with him, but that’s how I met him. He laid a guy out at my feet at the Fiddle and Steel." This obviously begs the question: Are they talking about the same night? Is Cledus telling the same story from the other point of view, or did Toby just serve as the unofficial security for Fiddle and Steel and have a habit of throwing obnoxious dudes out of the bar? I need to know now whether this was the night Eric was talking about. But either way, it just proves that Toby Keith wasn't afraid to throw down when he needed to. https://www.tiktok.com/@tracy_lawrence/video/7449777458708008234