A Lot To Live For

03/10/2008 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dave DiMartino

A giant of country music, a stunningly successful recording superstar, and a family man through and through, in mid-2004 Tim McGraw saw his latest album, Live Like You Were Dying, enter the charts at number one upon its release. And only a few months later, his seemingly unlikely duet with hip-hop heartthrob Nelly, "Over And Over," became a monster crossover smash. Both are blasts of affirmation for a can-do-no-wrong artist whose career continues to be white-hot.

And speaking of hot, one sweltering summer afternoon in Phoenix last year, right around the street date of Live Like You Were Dying, LAUNCH caught up with McGraw on the road, returning with both an energetic live performance and a memorable interview on tape. Below is the entire transcript of that interview, conducted by LAUNCH executive editor Dave DiMartino, covering everything from serious subjects like Tim's storybook marriage to Nashville goddess Faith Hill and the death of his father, baseball legend Tug McGraw, to lighter topics like midget boxing and struggling to squeeze into tight jeans at age 60. Read on...

YAHOO! MUSIC: What is the core difference between this album--the second you've done with your band the Dancehall Doctors--and your previous record?

TIM: I think with this album, when we went into the studio having one successful album already, that made us so much more confident. I think you hear that in the new record. I think that you hear that it's a whole other step for us. It's played with a lot of confidence, and a lot of heart and soul, and there's no trepidations. You know, everybody's playing really well.

YAHOO! MUSIC: What has been the reception to Live Like You Were Dying?

TIM: It's been great live. I mean, every time we do "Live Like You Were Dying," it's like a whole new energy comes over the crowd. It's kind of like the liftoff of the second segment of our show. It's amazing to feel that much energy come from the crowd when you do a song. I mean, it's the biggest record I've ever had.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Did the death of your father result in a song on that subject?

TIM: Well, yeah--the song is personal to me. But also, the song is personal to a lot of people, and I think that's the great thing about music: You can take a song where you can have personal feelings attached to it. But I would have cut the song anyway, because it's such a great song, and everybody can take what they want out of it. And I think that this song more than anything is an affirmation of life. It's not about death. And I think that that's what's great about this song, is that it's uplifting.

YAHOO! MUSIC: With all of your success as an artist, do you still wonder a lot about what people will think of your albums when they come out?

TIM: Well, sure. I mean, you can only do what you think is good, and what you think is good is only gonna last so long. Sooner or later, everybody isn't gonna think what you think is good is good. And so you go in with blinders on, and you try to cut a record that you think is good. You don't try to get influenced by everything that's going on with all the other music around you. You don't listen to the radio--I mean, I don't. When I get ready to do an album, I don't listen to anybody else; I don't wanna be influenced. I just wanna go in and have an idea of how my music should sound, and go in with blinders on and try to make that music. And sooner or later it's probably not gonna work, but so farm so good! [laughs]

YAHOO! MUSIC: With everybody now being familiar with your music, as opposed to when you were starting out, does that influence what songs you choose to sing?

TIM: I think the impetus is that that makes me wanna go out and do better. I feel like that I'm learning all the time. I'm learning from new artists, from established artists...every time I listen to '70s rock 'n' roll records, I'm learning. And I think that I'm just now starting to get a hold on what I do. I still don't think that I've gotten to where I wanna get yet, as far as the records that I'm making and things that I do. So I think that that's the thing that makes me climb higher and strive harder and try to get better.

YAHOO! MUSIC: With all the websites about you and all of the exposure of your wife and yourself to the public, what is your personal comfort level with all of that?

TIM: You know, we're very private, and I think that we really separate and try to keep our privacy to ourselves. There's things that people assume a lot of times, and we understand that people are interested, but we really try to keep our family life private as much as we can. I think that that's the key to us. I mean, there's a little bit that gets out, but for the most part, the thing that makes us work, and makes our family successful, and our life successful, is when we walk home and we walk into our doors of our house, all that other stuff is left outside. It's not a factor.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How does making records affect your life together?

TIM: We're each other's best sounding boards. We respect each other, and even though our music is lot different, we respect each other's opinions so much. I wouldn't think about going into the studio and making a record without playing stuff for Faith first and asking for her ideas. And the same with her. I mean, to me she's the best singer ever. I think she is the greatest singer that's ever been in this business. I really think that. And I think that she gets underrated a lot of times, because everybody sees her and says, "Well, yeah, she could sing the phonebook and it would be great!" But she's an awesome singer and she's got great ideas; she produces her records. So I want her opinion, and she wants mine, and that makes us a great team.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Your oldest daughter is about 7 or 8?

TIM: Seven, yeah.

YAHOO! MUSIC: What do your children make of all this--the stardom and celebrity friends and all that?

TIM: You know, Martina and John McBride are probably our best friends that we hang out with all the time and go to dinner with, so to them, you know, everybody's mom and dad is a singer. Their best friends Delaney and Emma [McBride]'s mom is a singer. So to them it's kind of like, "Doesn't everybody do this? [laughs]

YAHOO! MUSIC: You've now been in movies--how do you feel about acting in general?

TIM: Oh, I love movies. You get a whole new respect...first you go see a movie and you think, "Oh, I could do that, I could do that." Then when you actually do it, all of a sudden you understand and respect the people that can do that. I mean, it's a tough thing to sit there and be natural in front of the camera. The last movie I did, I was very lucky: I got to work with probably the best actor of our era, Billy Bob Thornton. He's just incredible. I was like a sponge: I soaked up everything he had to say.

YAHOO! MUSIC: I just saw that movie, Friday Night Lights.

TIM: That was good, wasn't it? The best scene was the scene in the boxing ring, with the midget, right? We went and saw that movie with John and Martina McBride, and we got home, and at about 3 in the morning I woke up and was just, like, laughing hysterically from a dead sleep. Faith says, "I'm trying to sleep. What are you laughing about?" And I say, "I'm just thinking about that boxing ring scene." And then she started laughing, and for an hour we laughed.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How would you describe the current state of country music, in terms of there being more people around the world aware of music coming out of Nashville?

TIM: I think we're on an upswing right now. But it all comes down to good music, and it's all cyclical, too. There's rises and falls and ups and downs in all music. I think that there's some really good music being made in Nashville right now, and I think we're on an upswing, and I think that we're just kind of scratching the surface of another upswing. So I think that some of the great artists that are out there right now--Big & Rich, the Warren Brothers--I mean, they're making great, solid music. Country radio went through a time where they were trying to pigeonhole everybody, and trying to make the gap really narrow, and I think that they've opened that up a little bit. And I think any time you open the gates a little bit and let some influences in that aren't mainstream, it opens the audience up and everybody becomes more aware. I think that's what's going on right now.

YAHOO! MUSIC: What are you currently trying to do in your shows that is dazzling and new?

TIM: Well, you know, there's an old song that says, "I don't think Hank would have done it this way," but I beg to differ. I think that if Hank Williams was around, if he had all these tools...he used every tool he had in the time that he was around, and if he had all these tools, he'd be using them. And the cool thing to us is that we feel like our music is solid. So it doesn't make us feel bad to throw all this other stuff on top of it, because the foundation's there. If the foundation wasn't there and you were trying to cover up stuff, then I think that there would probably be a red flag. But I like coming out here [onstage]. I don't buy into "Are you traditional? Are you progressive?" Whatever--that argument doesn't even hold water for me. I do what I do, and I enjoy doing what I do, and I wanna give people a show. So I'm gonna throw everything at you, you know? And have fun doing it.

YAHOO! MUSIC: The way show business works, you must think in terms of the fact that you can't last forever.

TIM: Well, five years ago we thought we were at the peak. [laughs] So it just seems to keep going.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Do you see yourself being like Willie Nelson, still out there when you're in your sixties?

TIM: No, there will come a time where I'm not gonna do this anymore. I mean, there will come a time, definitely, where I'll turn into Elvis--I'm gonna be fat and fishin', I guarantee you. But as long as I can fit in these jeans, and as long as people come to me, come to see us, we'll be doing it. I don't think I'll ever say I'm retiring; I don't think I can ever stand up and say, you know, three different times, that I'm retiring. I think I'll always wanna go out and do shows, and I'll always wanna make a record. But I'll definitely not try so hard.