Tim
McGraw

Time and again, Tim McGraw has shown he knows what to do with a good song. From his debut in 1993 down to today, he’s amassed twenty-nine #1 hits on the Billboard country charts. Whether offering philosophical looks at life and love (“Please Remember Me”), delivering party hearty anthems (“I Like It, I Love It”), or acting in Hollywood productions, he has made it all look easy. But it wasn’t.

Born in an unincorporated small town in Louisiana in 1967, McGraw had a rough and tumble youth. He and two sisters were raised by a single mom who worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.

He grew up as Tim Smith, but at age eleven he discovered his birth certificate and learned his father was the All-Star pitcher Tug McGraw, who briefly met Tim’s mother when he was in the minor leagues. The youth tracked down McGraw, who at first rebuffed him. The encounter easily might have crushed him—finding that his father, a well-paid athlete, knew he had a son and didn’t seem to care all that much. But the young man turned the moment around in his head and found hope to use as motivation.

“When I found out Tug McGraw was my dad, it gave me something in my little town in Louisiana, something that I would have never reached for,” McGraw said years later. He felt like, if that guy was a success in life, he had the same secret ingredient in him. He too had it in him to succeed, and how could he be angry about that? In time, he and Tug would grow close, but the young man had to find his own path first.

The Move to Nashville

He graduated second in his high school class and was in prelaw in college. Then came one more disruptive encounter, this one with a cheap guitar that completely changed his path. He called up his mom and told her he was going to try to make music in Nashville. He moved to Music City in May 1989, finding out when he arrived that his country hero, Keith Whitley, had just died. Over the next couple of years, he met fellow young wannabes Tracy Lawrence and Kenny Chesney. They competed in local nightclubs where whoever got the most applause got $50.

McGraw signed with Curb Records in 1990; his debut album, titled Tim McGraw, was released in 1993 and didn’t do much. He worried the label might not give him a second chance. So he booked studio time and put himself in charge of picking songs, including a lighthearted rave-up that audiences loved, “Indian Outlaw,” a number the label didn’t want to release. Sink or swim, he decided to make the album his way, and when his follow-up album, Not a Moment Too Soon, came out in 1994, several things quickly happened. “Indian Outlaw” became a Top Ten country hit, and its follow-up, “Don’t Take the Girl,” was his first #1. Suddenly McGraw had set himself up as a new star who pleased audiences while also making them feel something real.

“I Like It, I Love It” from 1995 was another hit anthem that still plays at sporting events, including Nashville Predator hockey games. Meanwhile, McGraw was growing as an artist. He has demonstrated emotional depth and become an artist with a rare eye for finding the songs that speak to the emotional moment. He has revealed this ability to touch hearts and minds on #1 hits like “Angry All the Time” (confronting rage), “Live Like You Were Dying” (making the moments count), and “Humble and Kind” (holding fast to your moral values). CMA members have noted his achievements, voting him Male Vocalist of the Year twice (1999, 2000) and Entertainer of the Year (2001). In 2004, “Live Like You Were Dying” won Single and Song of the Year honors from both the CMA and ACM, and it won him a Grammy.

A Power Couple

In 1994, McGraw met singer Faith Hill; she joined him on his 1996 Spontaneous Combustion tour and later that year they married. Their entwined careers have produced numerous memorable collaborations. “It’s Your Love” was a #1 country hit, crossed over into the pop Top Ten, and was CMA Vocal Event of the Year in 1997; in the words of writer James Hunter, it was “one of the great singles of the decade, a duet of George and Tammy dimensions.” Their blockbuster Soul2Soul tours together in 2000, 2006-2007, and 2017-2018 set new records for country music box office. In 2017, they released their first duet album, The Rest of Our Life, which went to #2 on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 chart and topped the country album chart.

In interviews, McGraw has explained that he looks at each song as an empty space he is about to enter. “I try to make every song sort of a cinematic experience. These little movies. And I put myself in the movie, and therefore I’m telling you the story.” He thinks like an actor, feeling for ways to make his listener feel invested. “If you’re doing it right, you’re allowing other people to put themselves in the movie so they can find the lead character, be the lead character, and they can walk through the scene themselves. And if you can do that, then you really got something special.”

Acting the Part

His understanding of character and his ability to believably embody a variety of personas has led to a significant career as an actor. He’s had leading roles in hit movies such as Friday Night Lights (2004) and The Blind Side (2009), played the patriarch rancher in the TV series 1883, and starred in numerous other films and TV shows.

To this day, Tim McGraw carefully picks and chooses opportunities within aspects of the Nashville system that make sense for him and yet is ready to go in fresh directions when they feel right. Those fresh directions include recording a 2002 album with his road band, the Dancehall Doctors; co-producing (with his producer Byron Gallimore) then newcomer Jo Dee Messina and her platinum single “Heads Carolina, Tails California”; and collaborating outside the genre with major figures like hip-hop artist Nelly on “Over and Over” in 2004 and rock band Def Leppard on “Nine Lives” in 2008.

During this year’s Pawn Shop Guitar Tour, McGraw is again doing something outside the norm. He’s giving away a pawn-shop guitar to a lucky fan at each tour stop. He’s paying it forward because—back when he was first aiming for a country career—he pawned his high school football ring to buy his first guitar. He hasn’t forgotten for a moment where he’s come from. He knows music can be a lifeline. For him, that lifeline has led to enduring honor as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.