Tim McGraw Feared He Might Be ‘Done’ When He First Heard Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw recently remembered a moment when hearing Taylor Swift's debut single — yes, the song "Tim McGraw," named after the country crooner — briefly convinced him he might be over the hill, music-wise.
The husband of Faith Hill discussed the near-sobering recollection last month when he stopped by the Bobby Bones Show for a chat. After addressing his own song named after a singer, Here on Earth's "Sheryl Crow," the musician looked back on his initial reaction to hearing a worktape version of "Tim McGraw." Interestingly enough, he was privy to the tune before it emerged as the opening cut on Swift's 2006 self-titled album.
Watch the moment at about 17 minutes and 20 seconds into the above video.
"I heard it before she put it out," McGraw says, as Pop Culture reports. "I heard the demo of it because somebody else played it for me — I can't remember exactly how that happened."
Still, when the "Highway Don't Care" singer "first heard the record and it came out and it blew up and she blew up, my first thought was, 'Okay, let me re-evaluate here. What does this mean? All right, if there's a song that she's singing about me… does this mean I'm done? Out the door!'"
However, fortunately for McGraw — and for listeners — Swift's ode to young love named after the musician didn't mean he was dried up. It's a fact he better understood once he learned how young Swift was when she wrote it.
McGraw continues, "Then I realized, somebody told me she was like 13 and wrote it in math class and I thought, 'Well that's all right. I can live with that.' It's not like a 35-year-old artist saying, you know, 'Hey, I used to listen to Tim McGraw,' and I'm done."
Looking back, it's almost funny to think that McGraw entertained the notion of becoming a has-been nearly 15 years ago. Today, he (as well as Swift, obviously) enjoy successful careers that only seem to gain more importance with age.
But, back in 2006, and for just a brief moment, the song "Tim McGraw" had the real Tim McGraw thinking he might be finished.
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