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Revision as of 00:15, 18 January 2006
Tim McGraw (born Samuel Timothy Smith in Delhi, Louisiana on May 1, 1967) is a country music singer who has achieved many number one singles on the country charts, six multi-platinum albums and sales of over 25 million albums. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of baseball player Tug McGraw. His trademark hit songs include "Don't Take the Girl", "Down on the Farm", "I Like It, I Love It", "It's Your Love" (featuring wife Faith Hill), and "Live Like You Were Dying".
Early life
His mother was a waitress named Betty Trimble (née D'Agostino; McGraw later received awards as an Italian-American) and his father was Tug McGraw, a famous relief pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Tug McGraw had a brief affair with Betty, Tim's mother, and the child was originally named Samuel Timothy Smith. Trimble raised Tim in Start, Louisiana, near Monroe. He didn't discover that McGraw was his father until he was 11. As a child, he was torn between a career in music and a career in athletics.
While attending Northeast Louisiana University, he was drawn to a musical career and started playing in clubs around Louisiana. While at the university, McGraw joined the Eta Omicron Chapter of The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. (Two fraternity brothers from this chapter would later work for him as his road personnel manager and his merchandising manager. At the fraternity's 2002 international convention, McGraw was awarded its prestigous Distinguished Achievement Award.)
Dropping out of college in 1989, he left for Nashville and played in clubs in that city hoping to be discovered.
1990s
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, "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 as well as reaching the top 20 on the pop charts.
The second single, the ballad "Don't Take the Girl", reached the top of the country charts as did the title track in 1995. "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 late in the year. 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."
Tim McGraw also produced the first three albums by Jo Dee Messina, along with long-time associate Byron Gallimore.
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. The first single "It’s Your Love", a duet with Faith Hill, reached number one on the country charts, reached the top ten in the pop charts 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". 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 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.
2000s
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 Soul 2 Soul 2000 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 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.
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:
- Darran Smith - lead guitar;
- Denny Hemingson - steel guitar;
- Bob Minner - acoustic guitar;
- John Marcus - bass guitar;
- Dean Brown - fiddler;
- Jeff McMahon - keyboards;
- Billy Mason - drums; and
- David Dunkley - percussion.
Tim McGraw and the Dance Hall Doctors was released on November 26, 2002 and reached number 2 on the country charts, with "Real Good Man" reaching number one. "She's My Kind of Rain" reached number 2 in 2003 and "Red Rag Top" reached the top 5. The album also featured a cover version of Elton John's early 1970s classic "Tiny Dancer", as well as appearances by Kim Carnes on "Comfort Me" - a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks - and Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles on "Illegal".
McGraw's 2004 album Live Like You Were Dying continued his record of commercial success. The title track was a soaring ode to living life fully and in the moment, while the second single "Back When" was a paean to an easy nostalgia.
In late 2004, his unlikely duet with rapper Nelly on "Over and Over", a soft ballad of lost love, became a crossover hit. [1] "Over and Over" brought McGraw a success he had never previously experienced on contemporary hit radio, and brought both artists success neither had previously experienced in the hot adult contemporary market. The song also spent a week at the top of the UK single charts, and was McGraw's first visit to the UK hit countdown.
In a 2004 interview, McGraw said he would like to run for public office in the future, possibly for Senate in his home state of Tennessee. In the same interview, he praised former President Bill Clinton, a somewhat unusual stance in the traditionally conservative country music industry: "I love Bill Clinton. I think we should make him king. I'm talking the red robe, the turkey leg - everything."
McGraw also participated in the Live 8: The Long Walk to Justice concert series, performing along with Faith Hill at the Rome, Italy concert on July 2, 2005 as part of the effort to get G8 leaders to address the humanitarian crises in Africa. McGraw's performance of "Live Like You Were Dying" was one of the most re-played performances in Live 8 television recaps.
Throughout the 2005 NFL season McGraw sang an alternate version of "I Like It, I Love It" every week during the season. The alternate lyrics, which would be different each week, would make reference to plays during Sunday's games and the song would be played along video highlights during halftime on Monday Night Football.
Discography
Albums
- Tim McGraw (1993)
- Not a Moment Too Soon (1994) #1 US, 5,000,000 US Sales
- All I Want (1995) #4 US, 2,000,000 US Sales
- Everywhere (1997) #2 US, 4,000,000 US Sales
- Place in the Sun (1999) #1 US, 3,000,000 US Sales
- Greatest Hits (2000) #4 US, 4,000,000 US Sales
- Set This Circus Down (2001) #2 US, 2,000,000 US Sales
- Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors (2002) #2 US, 3,000,000 US Sales
- Live Like You Were Dying (2004) #1 US, 3,000,000 US Sales
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Country | |||
| 1993 | "Welcome to the Club" | - | - | Tim McGraw |
| 1994 | "Indian Outlaw" | #15 | - | Not a Moment Too Soon |
| 1994 | "Don't Take the Girl" | #17 | #1 | Not a Moment Too Soon |
| 1994 | "Down on the Farm" | - | #2 | Not a Moment Too Soon |
| 1994 | "Not a Moment Too Soon" | - | #1 | Not a Moment Too Soon |
| 1995 | "Refried Dreams" | - | - | Not a Moment Too Soon |
| 1995 | "I Like It, I Love It" | #25 | #1 | All I Want |
| 1995 | "Can't Be Really Gone" | - | - | All I Want |
| 1996 | "All I Want is a Life" | - | - | All I Want |
| 1996 | "She Never Lets it Go to Her Heart" | - | #1 | All I Want |
| 1996 | "Maybe We Should Just Sleep On It Tonight" | - | #2 | All I Want |
| 1997 | "It's Your Love" (feat. Faith Hill) | #7 | #1 | Everywhere |
| 1997 | "Everywhere" | - | #1 | Everywhere |
| 1997 | "Just to See You Smile" | - | #1 | Everywhere |
| 1998 | "One of These Days" | - | - | Everywhere |
| 1998 | "Where the Green Grass Grows" | - | #1 | Everywhere |
| 1998 | "For a Little While" | #37 | - | Everywhere |
| 1999 | "Please Remember Me" | #10 | #1 | Place in the Sun |
| 1999 | "Something Like That" | #28 | #1 | Place in the Sun |
| 1999 | "My Best Friend" | #29 | #1 | Place in the Sun |
| 2000 | "Some Things Never Change" | - | - | Place in the Sun |
| 2000 | "Let's Make Love" (duet with Faith Hill) | - | - | Breathe |
| 2000 | "My Next Thirty Years" | #27 | #1 | Place in the Sun |
| 2001 | "Grown Men Don't Cry" | #25 | #1 | Set This Circus Down |
| 2001 | "Angry All the Time" | #38 | - | Set This Circus Down |
| 2001 | "The Cowboy in Me" | - | #1 | Set This Circus Down |
| 2002 | "Telluride" | - | - | Set This Circus Down |
| 2002 | "Unbroken" | #26 | - | Set This Circus Down |
| 2002 | "Red Ragtop" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #40 | #5 | Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors |
| 2003 | "She's My Kind of Rain" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #27 | #2 | Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors |
| 2003 | "Real Good Man" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #27 | #1 | Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors |
| 2004 | "Watch the Wind Blow By" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #32 | #1 | Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors |
| 2004 | "Live Like You Were Dying" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #29 | #1 | Live Like You Were Dying |
| 2004 | "Back When" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #30 | #1 | Live Like You Were Dying |
| 2005 | "Drugs or Jesus" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | - | - | Live Like You Were Dying |
| 2005 | "Do You Want Fries With That" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #59 | #5 | Live Like You Were Dying |
| 2005 | "My Old Friend" (with The Dancehall Doctors) | #89 Source | #19 | Live Like You Were Dying |
| 2005 | "Kill Myself" | - | - | Live Like You Were Dying |
Further reading
- Tim McGraw: Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors - This is Ours, Atria Books, 2002 (ISBN 074346706X).