\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAt 70 years old, Robert Earl Keen<\/a> is as surprised as anyone to find his foot still on the gas. The beloved Texas songwriter and composer of the timeless singalong \u201cThe Road Goes on Forever\u201d is still touring, even after his ballyhooed retirement<\/a> in 2022. There\u2019s a major difference, though, between the current version of Keen and the one from four years ago. Today, he is being thrust into the spotlight by a handful of friends who cut their teeth on Keen\u2019s music. Thanks to the support of A-listers like Tyler Childers, Turnpike Troubadours<\/a>, and Cross Canadian Ragweed, Keen and his music are being discovered by new fans, and in new arenas.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey give me a chance to just be myself,\u201d Keen tells Rolling Stone<\/em> of his post-retirement encore. Artists who once aspired to be in Keen\u2019s shoes now find themselves introducing Keen to the massive crowds they draw, paying tribute in song, or even welcoming Keen to the Grand Ole Opry to make his debut, as Childers did<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile Turnpike enlisted Keen to open a run of sold-out theaters in February and Ragweed had him out last summer for a stadium gig in Texas, Childers, in particular, has gone the extra mile to elevate Keen. In addition to the Opry introduction,\u00a0the \u201cBitin\u2019 List\u201d Grammy winner tapped Keen to open for him in Dallas at the 20,000-capacity Dos Equis Pavilion next month, and last year co-headlined Keen\u2019s Applause for the Cause<\/a> benefit, helping raise more than $3 million in relief after the devastating July 2025 floods in the Texas Hill Country. Midway through Keen\u2019s final set at the festival, Childers took the mic, backed by Keen\u2019s band, for 40 minutes of his own songs.<\/p>\n \n\tThe benefit took place not far from New Braunfels\u2019 Gruene Hall, where Keen first experienced a Childers show in 2018. He had been enamored with the song \u201cPurgatory,\u201d and Childers\u2019 spin on bluegrass. They struck up a friendship.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAfter that show, we just kept up with each other,\u201d Keen says. \u201cThe more I just got to sit around and talk to him, the more I thought, \u201cThis isn\u2019t some one-song accident deal with that song, \u2018Purgatory.\u2019 This guy is above and beyond anything.\u2019<\/em> I started calling him the perfect mixture of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Hank Williams. Even his prose is stunning. He just has a handle on the English language like no one I\u2019ve ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n