50 Fun Facts About Tim McGraw

At 11, Tim McGraw learned who his real father was after finding what in his mother's closet?

He found his birth certificate, which named star pitcher Tug McGraw as his father. Tim had only been hunting for money to buy sweets, and until then he believed his stepfather was his dad.

Tim McGraw was arrested in Buffalo in 2000 after which fellow country star took a ride on a police horse?

Kenny Chesney would not get off the horse, and McGraw stepped in when officers thought it was being stolen. Both singers were acquitted the following year.

Tim McGraw scored a 2004 pop crossover hit as the guest singer on Over and Over by which rapper?

Nelly wrote the lyrics himself, and the unlikely country-rap pairing topped the singles charts in both the UK and Ireland.

Which Tim McGraw song about a county-fair first love was the most-played radio single of the 2000s in any genre?

Something Like That logged 487,343 radio spins between 2000 and 2009, more than any other song. McGraw had to push his label to release it as a single at all.

Which country star plays lead guitar on Highway Don't Care, Tim McGraw's 2013 duet with Taylor Swift?

Keith Urban is credited as the featured guitarist and appears in the video with both singers. McGraw and Swift recorded their own vocal parts separately.

Which label, home of Taylor Swift's debut single titled Tim McGraw, signed McGraw himself in 2012?

Big Machine released Swift's single in 2006, six years before McGraw joined its roster. She built the song around a summer romance and her favorite McGraw track.

In The Blind Side, Tim McGraw plays Sean Tuohy, husband of a character played by which Oscar-winning actress?

Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress Oscar for the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy. The film tells how the couple took in future NFL lineman Michael Oher.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill play pioneers James and Margaret Dutton in 1883, a prequel to which TV drama?

Yellowstone follows the modern Dutton ranch, and 1883 shows how the family reached Montana by wagon train. McGraw's James Dutton is the great-grandfather of John Dutton III.

Which Tim McGraw song, released months after his father Tug McGraw died, was 2004's top country song?

Live Like You Were Dying spent seven weeks at number one and won the Grammy for Best Country Song. Its writers drew on friends whose outlook changed after a serious diagnosis.

Which 1995 Tim McGraw hit did the NHL's Nashville Predators adopt as their goal song?

I Like It, I Love It has greeted Predators goals since the team's first season, in a version with a line rewritten for the team. It was McGraw's third number-one country hit.

Which danger does the video for Tim McGraw's Highway Don't Care, built around a young woman's car crash, warn against?

Texting while driving causes the wreck: the driver drops her phone, reaches for it and drifts into oncoming traffic. Shane Drake directed the clip, which premiered in May 2013.

In the video for Highway Don't Care, viewers assume Tim McGraw plays the boyfriend until he is revealed as whom?

He is a hospital physician: the messages he keeps receiving are pages calling him in to treat the crash victim. She is flown in by a Vanderbilt LifeFlight helicopter.

Highway Don't Care comes from which 2013 Tim McGraw album, his first after leaving his label of twenty years?

Two Lanes of Freedom arrived in February 2013 and reached number two on the Billboard 200. It also produced the singles Truck Yeah, One of Those Nights and Southern Girl.

Tim McGraw's Highway Don't Care won which honor at the 2014 Academy of Country Music Awards?

Video of the Year was its one win that night; it lost in the Single Record and Vocal Event categories. The CMA had already named the duet its Musical Event of the Year.

Tim McGraw's father Tug McGraw struck out the final batter of the 1980 World Series for which team?

The Phillies won their first championship on that strikeout. In 2008 Tim scattered a handful of his dad's ashes on the pitcher's mound at their ballpark during another World Series.

Tim McGraw quit college and left for Nashville on the day in 1989 that which country singer, his hero, died?

Keith Whitley was McGraw's idol, and the news pushed him to drop out and chase a music career. Within about a year a Nashville label had noticed him.

Tim McGraw went to college on a baseball scholarship while preparing for which career?

A lawyer was the plan: he was a pre-law major and a Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity member before music took over. He quit college in 1989 to chase a singing career in Nashville.

Tim McGraw was born in the town of Delhi in which state, where his teenage mother was sent to live with relatives?

Louisiana is where his mother's parents sent her once she became pregnant. She had met Tug McGraw as a high school student living in the same apartment building.

Which 2006 tour by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill became the highest-grossing tour in country music up to that time?

Soul2Soul II grossed almost $89 million in 2006 and won Pollstar's Major Tour of the Year award. The couple gave the profits from their New Orleans show to Hurricane Katrina relief.

Which 1997 Tim McGraw and Faith Hill duet, with a video shot while she was pregnant, spent six weeks at number one?

It's Your Love was the first chart-topping country duet by a married couple in the modern tracking era. Hill was expecting the pair's first daughter, Gracie, during the shoot.

Which 1994 ballad, which follows a couple from childhood to becoming parents, was Tim McGraw's first number one?

Don't Take the Girl topped the country chart and crossed over to number 17 on the Hot 100. It was only the fifth single of his career.

Which 1994 Tim McGraw single became his breakthrough hit even though some radio stations refused to play it?

Indian Outlaw drew criticism for its stereotyped portrayal of Native Americans, but the controversy helped sales. It reached number eight on the country chart and 15 on the Hot 100.

During the 2005 NFL season, Tim McGraw sang weekly rewritten versions of one of his hits for which TV broadcast?

Monday Night Football played the song at halftime over highlights of the weekend's games. The words changed every week to mention the latest plays.

Which Tim McGraw single set a 1990s record by spending 42 weeks on Billboard's country chart?

Just to See You Smile also spent six weeks at number one and was Billboard's top country single of 1998. It was his third straight chart-topper from one album.

Which Elton John classic did Tim McGraw cover on the 2002 album he recorded with his own touring band?

Tiny Dancer was sent only to adult contemporary radio, yet it reached the country chart from unsolicited airplay. The album was cut in a mountaintop studio in upstate New York.

What is the name of Tim McGraw's longtime touring band, which he used in the studio for a 2002 album?

The Dancehall Doctors got the job because McGraw wanted to recognize their part in his success. Country albums are normally cut with session players, not a singer's road band.

The video for Tim McGraw's Humble and Kind uses worldwide footage from a documentary series by which TV host?

Oprah Winfrey supplied scenes from her series Belief after McGraw saw its trailer while running on a treadmill. She publicly praised the finished video the day after its release.

Humble and Kind, a 2016 number one for Tim McGraw, was written by which songwriter for her five children?

Lori McKenna wrote it alone as a list of everything she wanted her kids to know. It won the Grammy for Best Country Song and the CMA's Song of the Year.

Which label, Tim McGraw's home since 1990, sued him in 2011 over the timing of his album Emotional Traffic?

Curb Records claimed he had recorded the album too early. McGraw countersued, and that November a judge freed him to record for another company.

What is the title of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's first full duets album, released in 2017?

The Rest of Our Life came out through a new deal with Sony after two decades of occasional duets. Its lead single, Speak to a Girl, reached number six on the country chart.

In which 2004 film about a Texas high school team does Tim McGraw play a fullback's abusive, hard-drinking father?

Friday Night Lights cast him as Charles Billingsley, a former state champion who torments his son Don. Critics singled out the singer's performance for praise.

Tim McGraw's first leading film role came in which 2006 family drama about a girl and a wild mustang?

Flicka cast him as Rob McLaughlin, a Wyoming rancher at odds with his horse-loving daughter. McGraw also served as executive producer of the soundtrack album.

In the 2010 film Country Strong, Tim McGraw plays the husband and manager of a troubled singer played by whom?

Gwyneth Paltrow took guitar lessons to play country star Kelly Canter. One of the songs she performs, Coming Home, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

Tim McGraw is godfather to the son of Emma Roberts and which actor, his co-star in Country Strong?

Garrett Hedlund became a close friend after the pair had also worked together on an earlier sports drama. Country Strong was their second film as co-stars.

Tim McGraw plays a NASA engineer and the heroine's father in which 2015 film starring George Clooney?

Tomorrowland, directed by Brad Bird, cast him as Eddie Newton. His daughter Casey, the film's lead, is played by Britt Robertson.

Which actor shares top billing with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in 1883, the Western miniseries by Taylor Sheridan?

Sam Elliott plays Shea Brennan, the Pinkerton man who leads the wagon train west. The three stars were announced together in August 2021.

Tim McGraw's first acting job was a 1997 episode of a sitcom built around which stand-up comedian?

Jeff Foxworthy had McGraw play his character's rival. Seven years later the singer turned up as a sheriff in the independent film Black Cloud.

Which honor did Tim McGraw receive in 2006 at a ceremony where actor Billy Bob Thornton spoke?

A Walk of Fame star bearing his name sits at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard, near those of Julie Andrews and William Shatner. Thornton had acted alongside him two years earlier.

Me and Tennessee, Tim McGraw's duet from the film Country Strong, was written by the frontman of which band?

Coldplay singer Chris Martin wrote the song, which reached number 63 on the UK singles chart and number 34 on the US country chart.

Tim McGraw co-wrote and sang on Nine Lives, a 2008 single by which British rock band?

Def Leppard wrote it with him after he joined the band on stage in 2006. It became the first single from their album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge.

Tim McGraw produced and sang harmony on Bring On the Rain, a 2002 number one for which country singer?

Jo Dee Messina had worked with him from the start: McGraw co-produced her first three albums, beginning with her self-titled debut.

Please Remember Me, a top-ten pop hit for Tim McGraw in 1999, features harmony vocals by which country star?

Patty Loveless sings harmony on his cover, which spent five weeks atop the country chart. Rodney Crowell had co-written and first recorded the song four years earlier.

Tim McGraw's 2021 single Undivided is a duet with Tyler Hubbard, one half of which country duo?

Florida Georgia Line's Hubbard co-wrote the song while quarantined in late 2020. It was his second collaboration with McGraw, after the 2016 single May We All.

Which Tim McGraw song reached the country chart after radio stations aired his live 2007 ACM Awards performance?

If You're Reading This entered the chart at number 35 on airplay of the telecast alone. McGraw co-wrote it with the Warren Brothers, and it later climbed to number three.

Which hobby does Tim McGraw pursue with a Cirrus SR22 that he owns?

Piloting planes is a licensed pursuit for him: he holds a private pilot license, and the SR22 is a single-engine aircraft.

Which breed is Lepshi, Tim McGraw's dog that won Best of Breed at the 2023 Westminster Kennel Club show?

Bracco Italiano is the family's breed of choice: the McGraws have also owned two more, named Caesar and Stromboli.

Tim McGraw became a minority owner of the Nashville Kats, an expansion team in which sport?

Arena football's new Nashville franchise went to Bud Adams, owner of the NFL's Tennessee Titans. McGraw came in as his minority partner.

Tim McGraw co-wrote the 2019 bestseller Songs of America with which Pulitzer Prize-winning historian?

Jon Meacham and McGraw traced patriotism and protest through the nation's music. The book reached number two on the New York Times bestseller list.

Swampstock, the hometown charity event Tim McGraw founded in 1994, began as a fundraising game of which sport?

Softball was the whole event at first, raising money for local Little League programs. It later grew to include a multi-artist concert that drew more than 11,000 fans.

On his 2002 album, Tim McGraw sings Illegal with two members of which veteran rock band?

The Eagles' Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit sing on Illegal. The same record has Kim Carnes on Comfort Me, a song written in response to the September 11 attacks.