Toby Keith expanded his career into filmmaking with Beer for My Horses, released on 8 August 2008 and based on his 2003 number-one duet with Willie Nelson. The film mattered as Keith’s first screenwriting and producing project, adding to his work as a successful country singer-songwriter and actor before his death from stomach cancer in February 2024.

Keith co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the comedy-drama alongside Rodney Carrington, playing Oklahoma deputy sheriffs confronting a drug cartel. Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, Mel Tillis and David Allan Coe appeared, while the cast also included Tom Skerritt, Barry Corbin, Gina Gershon and Claire Forlani. The title came from a phrase Keith remembered from working for a rodeo company as a teenager: “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses”; Nelson reportedly agreed to the duet after hearing the title alone.