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50 facts about Tim McGraw, country singer, songwriter, and actor

Tim McGraw has been married to fellow singer Faith Hill since 1996, and is the son of the late baseball player Tug McGraw. Learn 50 interesting things about the country singer.

1. Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana, the only child of Elizabeth "Betty" Ann (D'Agostino), a waitress, and Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr., a star pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies.

2. McGraw is of Italian and Irish descent on his mother's side, and of Scots-Irish, English, Scottish, French, Dutch, Czech, and German descent on his father's side.

3. Raised by his mother in Start, also in Richland Parish, east of Monroe, McGraw grew up believing his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his father.

4. From the time of his mother's marriage until the time he met his biological father, his last name was Smith.

5. At age 11, McGraw discovered his birth certificate while searching his mother's closet to look for Christmas presents. After his discovery, his mother revealed that his biological father was Tug McGraw, and took Tim to meet him for the first time.

6. For seven years, Tug denied being Tim's father. Tim was 18 years old when Tug first realized how much Tim looked like him at that age, and he acknowledged paternity. They remained close until Tug's death in 2004.

7. As a child, McGraw loved to play competitive sports, including baseball, even though he did not know his biological father was a professional athlete.

8. He was also a member of the FFA.

9. He attended Northeast Louisiana University, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe, on a baseball scholarship, although he never earned a varsity letter.

10. During his college period, he learned to play guitar, and would frequently perform and sing for tips, although he claims that his roommates often hid the guitar because he was so bad.

11. He attended Florida Community College at Jacksonville for one term, and occasionally sat in with local bands.

12. In 1989, on the day his hero Keith Whitley died, McGraw dropped out of college to head to Nashville and pursue a musical career.

13. He has been married to fellow singer Faith Hill since 1996, and is the son of the late baseball player Tug McGraw.

14. McGraw has released thirteen studio albums.

15. 10 of those albums have reached number 1 on the Top Country Albums charts, with his 1994 breakthrough album Not a Moment Too Soon being the top country album of 1994.

16. His albums have produced over 50 singles, 25 of which have reached number 1 on the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts.

17. Three of these singles - "It's Your Love", "Just to See You Smile", and "Live Like You Were Dying" - were the top country songs of 1997, 1998, and 2004 according to Billboard Year-End.

18. He has also won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and three People's Choice Awards.

19. His Soul2Soul II Tour with Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the Top 5 among all genres of music.

20. McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and Four Christmases (with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon), and lead roles in Flicka (2006) and Country Strong (2010).

21. He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats.

22. Taylor Swift's debut single, "Tim McGraw", refers to him and his song "Can't Tell Me Nothin'".

23. In acknowledgement of his grandfather's Italian heritage, McGraw was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2004, receiving the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Music during the Foundation's 29th Anniversary Gala.

24. McGraw came to the attention of Curb Records in 1990. After cutting a demo single, McGraw gave a copy to his father. A man who was friends with Curb Records executives heard the demo while driving with Tug one day and recommended that Curb contact the young singer.

25. Several weeks later, he was able to play his tape for Curb executives, after which they signed him to a recording contract.

26. McGraw's first single, "What Room Was the Holiday In", did not enter the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts upon its release.

27. McGraw's first acting appearance came in a 1997 episode of The Jeff Foxworthy Show, where he played Foxworthy's rival.

28. In 2004, McGraw played a sheriff in Rick Schroder's independent release Black Cloud.

29. McGraw received critical acclaim as the overbearing father of a running back in the major studio Texas high school football drama Friday Night Lights. The Dallas Observer said the role was "played with unexpected ferocity by country singer Tim McGraw".

30. McGraw's first lead role was in the 2006 film Flicka, which was released in theaters October 20, 2006. In the remake of the classic book My Friend Flicka, McGraw played the father, Rob, costarring with Alison Lohman and Maria Bello.

31. Shortly before Flicka opened, McGraw received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is located at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.

32. In addition to acting in Flicka, McGraw served 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.

33. McGraw also had a small part in the Michael Mann-produced 2007 film The Kingdom, reuniting him with Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg.

34. He is among the stars of Dirty Girl, a film that premiered on September 12, 2010, at the Toronto Film Festival, along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy and Dwight Yoakam.

35. Also in 2010, McGraw starred in Country Strong as James Canter, the husband and manager of the fictional country singer Kelly Canter (portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow).

36. When McGraw first reached fame in 1994, he established his annual Swampstock event. It began as a charity softball game to raise money for hometown little league programs; the event now includes a celebrity softball game and a multi-artist concert that attracts over 11,000 fans per year. The combined events have funded new Little League parks and equipment, and have established college scholarship funds for students in the northeast Louisiana area.

37. From 1996 to 1999, McGraw hosted an annual New Year's Eve concert in Nashville with special guests including Jeff Foxworthy, the Dixie Chicks, and Martina McBride.

38. Beginning in 1999, McGraw would pick select cities on each tour, and the night before he was scheduled to perform, would choose a local club and host a quickly-organized show. This tour-within-a-tour became known as "The Bread and Water Tour", and all proceeds from the show would go to a charity from that community.

39. In the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, McGraw and his wife, who was raised in Mississippi, joined groups taking supplies to Gulfport, Mississippi.

40. The two also hosted several charity concerts to benefit those who were displaced by the storm. Later in the year, the couple established the Neighbor's Keeper Foundation, which provides funding for community charities to assist with basic humanitarian services, in the event of a natural disaster, or for desperate personal circumstances.

41. McGraw is also a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet, to which various celebrities donate their time, skills, and fame, to help the Red Cross highlight important initiatives and response efforts.

42. On July 12, 2007, it was made public that McGraw and his wife Faith Hill, while in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a performance, donated $5000 to Kailey Kozminski, 3-year-old daughter of Officer Robert Kozminski, a Grand Rapids police officer who was killed on July 8, 2007 while responding to a domestic disturbance.

43. In June 2010, McGraw and his wife Faith Hill organized Nashville Rising, a benefit concert aimed to raise $2 million for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in response to the flood in early May that killed 22 people and caused $2 billion in damage.

44. McGraw holds a private pilot license.

45. McGraw and Faith Hill have three daughters: Gracie Katherine, Maggie Elizabeth, and Audrey Caroline.

46. McGraw has occasionally served as a record producer in collaboration with Byron Gallimore, who has co-produced all of his albums. The two co-produced Jo Dee Messina's self-titled debut, as well as her next two albums, I'm Alright and Burn.

47. McGraw and Gallimore also produced the only album released by The Clark Family Experience in 2000, and Halfway to Hazard's 2007 self-titled debut album.

48. On August 10, 2015, Tim released a brand new single to digital retailers titled "Top of the World", which will later be released to radio on August 17, 2015 as the lead single to his upcoming third studio album for Big Machine Records, and his fourteenth overall.

49. McGraw's eighth greatest hits album, Love Story, is a compilation of his twelve biggest love songs and two previously unreleased recordings. It was released exclusively through Walmart on February 4, 2014, by Curb Records.

50. He also contributed a song for the Grammy-winning tribute album to Bob Willsentiled Ride With Bob. A cover of "Milk Cow Blues", this song was recorded as a duet with Asleep at the Wheel, whom he had met while performing together at the George Strait Country Music Festival.

Source: Wikipedia.org

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Tim McGraw

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