Stephen Colbert Reveals Unlikely Life Lesson He Learned From Toby Keith

The celebrity world is rife with unlikely friendships, Stephen Colbert’s bond with departed country star Toby Keith, who passed away this week after years of struggling with stomach cancer, was akin to a friendship between “a horse and a duck,” Colbert said on The Late Show Tuesday evening, revealing the depths of his relationship with Keith to the audience. “For the record, I was the duck.”

Keith, Colbert revealed, was a very influential guest to him when he was just starting out as the host of the The Colbert Report: there had been a plan to skewer Keith as a guest with a reference to his song “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American).”

“Right before I went on stage I remember vividly looking down at my shoes and saying, ‘What are you doing? You’re a host. He’s your guest. Make him feel welcome, see who he is,’” Colbert said he told himself at the time. “And what do you know? We hit it off like a house afire. I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed talking to Toby Keith.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.