Tim McGraw Biography

Tim McGraw was born May 1, 1967, in Delhi, La. His mother was a waitress named Betty Trimble (nee 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 Tucker Tim's mother, and he 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. Dropping out of college in 1989, he left for Nashville and played in clubs in that city hoping to be discovered. He sang in Nashville clubs for a couple of years and landed a deal with Curb in 1992. His debut single, the minor hit "Welcome to the Club," was released later that year, and his self-titled debut album appeared in 1993 but failed to even make the charts.

He didn't have a major hit until 1994's Not a Moment Too Soon, which included the controversial single "Indian Outlaw." He followed that up with his first No. 1 record, "Don't Take the Girl," and continued with "Down on the Farm," "Refried Dreams" and the title cut. The project was named album of the year in 1994 by the Academy of Country Music.

McGraw's follow-up, 1995's All I Want, immediately consolidated his stardom with the number one smash "I Like It, I Love It." The album topped the country charts, reached the pop Top Five, and sold over two million copies. Once again, it functioned as a hit factory thanks to the number two "Can't Be Really Gone," the number one "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart," and the Top Five "All I Want Is a Life" and "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It."

In 1996, Tim McGraw toured the US on the "Spontaneous Combustion" tour, which was the most successful country tour of that year. Faith Hill was his support 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.

McGraw's Everywhere earned the CMA album of the year honors in 1998. The lead single, "It's Your Love," was the first musical collaboration between McGraw and Hill. It held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard country singles chart for six weeks, garnered the couple a CMA vocal event trophy and won vocal event, video, song and single of the year at the ACM Awards. More duets followed: "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me" won the 1998 ACM vocal event trophy, and "Let's Make Love" earned a Grammy.

With the multi-platinum success of Everywhere, McGraw was poised to take over Brooks' throne as the king of contemporary country, a transition that only accelerated when Brooks confounded his fans with the Chris Gaines project. McGraw, meanwhile, just kept topping the charts. His next album, 1999's triple-platinum A Place in the Sun, hit number one country and pop, and four of its singles also hit number one: "Please Remember Me" (which featured 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. In 2000, he released a "Greatest Hits" album which again topped the charts spending nine weeks on top of the country charts. He and his tour support artist Kenny Chesney got involved in a scuffle with police officers when Chesney attempted to ride one of their horses - Tim McGraw was later cleared of the charges.

Following his Greatest Hits, McGraw released Set This Circus Down in 2001, hitting No. 1 with "Grown Men Don't Cry," "Angry All the Time" and "The Cowboy in Me." He also filmed a video for "Angel Boy" and harmonized and helped produce Jo Dee Messina's crossover hit, "Bring On the Rain."

For the follow-up album, McGraw defied country convention by entering the studio not with session musicians, but with his road band, the Dancehall Doctors, a unit that had been together since 1996 (with some members around even before that). Tim McGraw was released in late 2002 and produced Top Ten hits in "Red Rag Top" and "She's My Kind of Rain"; it also featured a startlingly faithful cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer."

Another career single came his way in 2004 when the anthem "Live Like You Were Dying" dominated the airwaves. It spent seven weeks atop Billboard's country airplay chart and won two Grammys and two CMA Awards. The follow-up single, "Back When," topped the charts too. McGraw also teamed with urban artist Nelly for the pop hit, "Over and Over," which was included on McGraw's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 in 2006.

"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.

While enrolled at Northeast Louisiana University, McGraw joined the Eta Omicron Chapter of The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Two Fraternity brothers from the Eta Omicron Chapter are still with him today, working as his personnel manager on the road and his merchandising manager. At The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity's 2002 International Convention in Palm Springs, CA, McGraw was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award. The Award is one of the highest honors The Fraternity can give to an album.

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.

When Tim McGraw debuted in the early '90s, few would have predicted that he would eventually take over Garth Brooks' position as the most popular male singer in country music. Yet that's exactly what he did, thanks to a string of multi-platinum albums, a high-profile marriage to fellow superstar Faith Hill, and Brooks' own inevitable decline. His sound epitomized the strain of commercial country that dominated his era: updated honky tonk and Southern-fried country-rock on the uptempo tunes, well-polished, adult contemporary-tinged pop on the ballads. Helped out early in his career by several novelty items, McGraw simply wound up cranking out hookier hits on a more consistent basis than any of his peers. By the late '90s, he was not only a superstar among country fans, but a mainstream celebrity with a large female following.

He spent most of 2006 touring with Hill on the Soul2Soul2 tour, which sold more than a million tickets. His film acting credits include Friday Night Lights (2004) and Flicka (2006).

Sources: cmt.com, starpulse.com, popstarsplus.com.