McGraw, Tim (1967-…), is one of the most popular singers in country music. Nearly all of McGraw’s albums have reached number one on the country music charts. His albums have produced more than 20 number-one singles. McGraw sometimes records with the country music star Faith Hill, his wife since 1996.
Samuel Timothy McGraw was born on May 1, 1967, in Delhi, Louisiana. His father was Tug McGraw, a star major league baseball pitcher. Tim learned to play guitar while attending Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship. He left the university in 1989 and moved to Nashville, the center of country music, to pursue a music career.
McGraw released his first album, Tim McGraw, in 1993. The album did not sell well, but his next album, Not a Moment Too Soon (1994), became the first of five consecutive albums to reach number one in sales. The album included the number-one singles “Not a Moment Too Soon” and “Don’t Take the Girl.” His 1997 album Everywhere contained six number-one singles: “It’s Your Love” (a duet with Hill), “Everywhere,” “Just to See You Smile,” “One of These Days,” “Where the Green Grass Grows,” and “For a Little While.”
McGraw has remained a top country singer through the early 2000’s with such singles as “Live Like You Were Dying” (2004) and “Over and Over” (2004), a duet with hip-hop star Nelly. McGraw has also acted in a few motion pictures, including his first film, the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), and the fantasy drama The Shack (2017).
McGraw has won several Grammy Awards. He won the 2005 Grammy for best male country vocal performance for “Live Like You Were Dying.” He won the Grammy for best country collaboration with vocals twice for duets with Hill: in 2001, for ”Let’s Make Love,” and in 2006, for “Like We Never Loved at All.” With the American historian Jon Meacham, McGraw wrote the book Songs of America (2019), a history of American music.
See also Hill, Faith .
