When the tribute concert is special Toby Keith: American Icon Airing tonight on NBC, fans will see the late country legend’s daughter, Krystal Keith, give an emotional performance of his song “Don’t Let the Old Man In.”

She’ll be taking the stage alongside stars like Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan — but Krystal tells PEOPLE she had to think long and hard about her decision to perform at the fest. And that song choice? That was a tough sell, too.

“I thought, ‘Okay, I can handle a party song.’ But when (producers) approached me with (‘Don’t Let the Old Man In’), I thought, ‘Oh shit, I’m crying just listening to that song. I don’t know how I’m going to sing it,'” she says of the song, a poignant musing on death that her father sang during his final public performance. “I’m glad they did that because it’s really special. I think he would have been proud of it.”

Toby, who died in February at age 62 from stomach cancer, had much to be proud of in terms of his family, including Krystal (38), daughter Shelley (44), son Stelen (27) and Tricia, to whom he was married for 40 years.

While Krystal says the concert special came “maybe a little sooner” than she and her family had hoped, as they’re still nervous about being in the spotlight, she also knows it’s something her father would have been proud of, as everything came together in as “authentically Toby Keith” a way as possible.

“The team decided to have a bar on stage. There’s a huge American flag. The military is involved,” she says. “It really embodies who he was and touches on all the things he loved in his life: his family, his foundation, his music and the military.”

The two-hour special will feature performances from Underwood, Bryan, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, Lainey Wilson, Darius Rucker and many more, all performing Keith’s greatest hits with their own twist.

“He was an ‘oh gosh, this isn’t necessary’ type of guy,” Krystal says. “He wouldn’t want us to have this big thing for him, but he would also be honored that those artists would take time out of their schedules and make that happen and honor him in such a way and say such kind words about him.”

For Krystal, having such a large body of work to fall back on when she misses her father has been an invaluable source of comfort amid her grief. She says she and her young daughters Kirby, 5, and Hensley, 8, listen to Toby’s music “constantly” because it helps them feel close to him.

“The thing that made me grateful instead of just feeling sorry for myself was Ashley Campbell. When Glen Campbell died, she said she felt lucky that she had his job and she was in a store and his voice randomly came on the radio and she had all these songs and lyrics and interviews and things that she could look back on and how grateful she was for them,” Krystal says. “I thought, ‘That’s a great way to look at it.’ Not everybody has that. I try to hold the gratitude there.”

A portion of ticket sales for the concert, which was filmed at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, will benefit the Toby Keith Foundation’s OK Kids Korral, a free home for families of critically ill pediatric patients, and will go to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, a top children’s hospital in Nashville.

For Krystal, it was rewarding to know that the show had a “purpose” as Toby did everything he could to help others.

“I think most of the good deeds he did will never be known because he loved doing them behind closed doors,” she says.

Krystal misses her father “a hundred times a day,” often at unexpected moments, like when she steps into a small-town dive bar.

“Those were his favorites,” she says. “I’d call him on the road and be like, ‘Hey, I’m in a random city. Where can I eat?’ It could literally be any random small town in America and I promise you he’s been there, and he’s eaten there, and he knows exactly where to go. Those are the moments that really hit home for me.”

Her siblings live nearby, and the children worked together to make sure their mother, Tricia, was okay. Krystal says they agreed to take “shifts” in the days following the loss of their patriarch so Tricia wouldn’t have to sleep alone.

If she could talk to her father today, Krystal would assure him that his family is okay.

“(I would tell him) that we were going to be OK. I think he knew that,” she says. “He told us we were going to be OK, but just to know that he knows we were going to be OK would be amazing.”

Toby Keith: American Icon will air on NBC on Wednesday, August 28 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT and will be streamed the following day on Peacock.