Tim McGraw Biography

Tim McGraw (born Samuel Timothy McGraw on May 1, 1967, in Delhi, Louisiana) is an American country music singer who has achieved many number one entries on the country singles and album charts, with total sales in excess of 25 million units. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of baseball player Tug McGraw. His trademark hit songs include "Indian Outlaw", "Don't Take the Girl", "Down on the Farm", "I Like It, I Love It", "It's Your Love" (featuring his wife, Faith Hill), and "Live Like You Were Dying".

His mother was a waitress named Betty Trimble (née D'Agostino) and his father was Tug McGraw, a famous relief pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. McGraw's father was of Scotch-Irish descent, his mother was of Italian and Irish descent.

Trimble raised Tim in Start, Louisiana, near Monroe. Tim grew up believing his birth father was Horace Smith, who was actually his step-father, until he discovered his birth certificate in his mother's closet at the age of 11. It was then that his mother told him that his birth father was Tug McGraw.

Growing up, Tim loved to play baseball and other competitive sports. Soon after, he grew a love for music as well. He attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. During this period, he learned to play guitar and would frequently perform and sing for tips. He dropped out of college in 1989 in order to head to Nashville and pursue a musical career. He was discovered busking for tips in front of a hot dog stand known as HounDogs in Nashville, since HounDogs had a small stage exclusively for buskers to perform on. Many Nashville noteworthies played there at one time or another.

He signed with Curb Records in 1990, but it wasn't until 1992 that he had his first minor hit "Welcome to the Club" off his self-titled debut album, which failed to make much of a dent on the charts. He achieved a couple of minor hits including, "Memory Lane" and "Two Steppin Mind", off the same album in 1993.

The second album, Not a Moment Too Soon, went on to become the best selling country album in 1994. The first single, "Indian Outlaw", written by John D. Loudermilk, caused considerable controversy as critics argued that it presented Native Americans in a patronizing way. Some radio stations refused to play it, but among some Indian tribes, the song was popular; it went to the top of the playlist at the clear channel KTNN, the radio voice of the Navajo Nation. The controversy helped spur sales and the song became McGraw's first top ten country single (getting as high as #8); it also made #15 on the pop chart and went gold and silver.

His second single, the ballad "Don't Take the Girl", became his first #1 country hit (it also reached the top 20 on the pop chart and went gold); and in [1995]] the album's title track was also a #1 country single. "Down on the Farm" reached number two and "Refried Dreams" reached the top 5. The album sold over 5 million copies, topping the Billboard 200 as well as the country album charts. He won Academy of Country Music awards for Album of the Year and Top New Male Vocalist in 1994.

All I Want, released in 1995, continued his run of success debuting at number one on the country charts. The album sold over two million copies and reached top 5 on the Billboard 200. "I Like It, I Love It" reached number one on the country charts as the leadoff single, while "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart" also went to number one in 1996. "Can't Really Be Gone", "All I Want is a Life", and "Maybe We Should Just Sleep On It" were all top 5 hits.

In 1996, Tim McGraw travelled America on the Spontaneous Combustion Tour, which was the most successful country tour of that year.Faith Hill was his supporting act and the title of the tour turned out to be prophetic as the singers married October 6, 1996. The couple have had three daughters: Gracie Katherine born May 5, 1997, Maggie Elizabeth born August 12, 1998 and Audrey Caroline born December 6, 2001.

Tim McGraw's happy family life is in contrast with his father who had a reputation as a hell raiser. Tug McGraw once famously said: "Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."

Everywhere continued his golden run topping the country charts and reaching number two on the album charts in 1997. The album sold 4 million copies and its first single, "It’s Your Love", a duet with Faith Hill, became the first single in twenty years to spend six weeks on top of Billboard's country singles chart (the previous such song had been Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson's "Luckenbach, Texas" in 1977); reached #7 on the pop chart (and gained platinum status); and became the most played single in the history of the Billboard country charts. Five more singles "Everywhere", "Where the Green Grass Grows", "One of These Days", "For a Little While", and "Just to See You Smile" reached the top of the country charts from the album, with the last of these setting a new record by spending 42 weeks on the Billboard charts. The Country Music Association awarded Everywhere its Album of the Year award for 1997.

A Place in the Sun in 1999 was another huge hit topping the US pop and country album charts, and selling three million albums. It featured another four chart topping singles on the country charts including "Please Remember Me" with Patty Loveless, "Something Like That", "My Best Friend", and "My Next Thirty Years"; "Some Things Never Change" was also a big hit, reaching #7 on the country chart. During Summer 1999, Tim McGraw toured the US with the Dixie Chicks as the support artist as well as appearing as the headline artist at the George Strait Country Music Festival.

Faith Hill's career was also going well. Another duet between the pair, "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me" off her multi-platinum 1998 album Faith, reached the top five of the US country charts. Her follow-up and even more successful 1999 album Breathe featured another duet between the couple called "Let's Make Love", which would win a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.

By the end of 1999, Tim McGraw had supplanted Garth Brooks as the most popular country male singer in the nation, while Faith Hill was one of the most popular female country singers along with Shania Twain.

In 2000, McGraw released his Greatest Hits album which again topped the charts for nine weeks. On tour he and opening act Kenny Chesney got involved in a scuffle with police officers when Chesney attempted to ride one of their horses; McGraw was later cleared of any charges. In the latter half of 2000, he and Hill went out on the Soul2Soul Tour, playing to sellout crowds in 64 venues including Madison Square Garden. It was one of the top tours of any genre in the US and the leading country tour during 2000.

Set This Circus Down was released in April of 2001 and spawned four number one country hits - "Grown Men Don't Cry", "Angry All the Time", "The Cowboy in Me", and "Unbroken". A duet with Jo Dee Messina entitled "Bring on the Rain" also topped the country charts. "Things Change" made the history as the first country song to chart from a downloaded version following his performance of the song at the CMA Awards show. After the tragedies of September 11, 2001, 2 unreleased songs were leaked to the Internet. The songs were Petra's "More Power To Ya" and Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven", both performed at freedom concerts.

In 2002, Tim McGraw bucked country music traditions by recording his album Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors with his tour band The Dancehall Doctors in the Catskill Mountains. Unlike rock music, where it is commonplace for touring bands such as the E Street Band or Crazy Horse to play on albums with the artist they support, country albums are normally recorded with session musicians. McGraw stated on his web site that he felt he owed this to the musicians who had been an integral part of his success and to capture some of the feel of a real band. All of the Dancehall Doctors had been with McGraw since at least 1996. They include:

McGraw first started his acting career in a 1995 episode of The Jeff Foxworthy Show playing Foxworthy's rival.

In 2004 McGraw first began appearing as an actor in movies with Black Cloud. He played a sheriff in Rick Schroder's independent release Black Cloud. Then in the same year, McGraw received good notices as the overbearing father of a running back in the major studio Texas high school football drama Friday Night Lights (for example, the Dallas Observer said the role was played with "played with unexpected ferocity by country singer Tim McGraw" [2]). The movie went on to gross over $60 million dollars worldwide. Most recently it was named one of the top 50 high school movies of all time (number 37) by Entertainment Weekly.

McGraw's first lead role is in the current Fox 2000 film Flicka, which was released in theatres October 20 2006. He plays the father Rob in the remake of the classic book "My Friend Flicka," and costars Alison Lohman and Maria Bello. The movie debuted in the top 10 list and has grossed over 15MM in a several weeks. The movie is a family drama and again McGraw has achieved critical acclaim for his acting.

In addition, he serves as executive producer of the soundtrack album which was released by his record label, StyleSonic Records, in association with Curb Records and Fox 2000 films. It features the closing credit song "My Little Girl" which is the first song McGraw has recorded that he cowrote. It is considered a contender for an Oscar and became his 38th top 10 single and is still climbing the charts.

In early 2006, McGraw reaffirmed his plans for running for public office, saying that he would like to run for Governor of Tennessee about 10 years down the road. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He has said he would be open to running for the Senate, but leans toward governor saying, "It's more of a leadership role, and I think that's something that I'd do well...that doesn't rule out senator; I just think that as governor of a state, there would be a lot more opportunities to make some decisions and change some things." [3]

McGraw has been a huge supporter of President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and other Democrats, and Time has called him "one of the few vocal Democrats in country." [4]