Happy birthday to Tim McGraw! The singer turns 58 on May 1. In honor of his birthday, we are revealing four things to know about McGraw's life and career.
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1. He found out by accident that he is Tug McGraw's son.
McGraw is now known as the son of famous baseball player, Tug McGraw. But it wasn't until he was 11 years old, and found his birth certificate by accident, when he realized he was the son of the baseball star. The two met, but didn't become close until the "Live Like You Were Dying" singer was much older.
"I think a lot of people don't realize I didn't grow up with Tug," McGraw says on the Today Show. "I didn't know Tug was my dad. I found my birth certificate when I was 11 years old. And, like I said, we didn't have a whole lot, and I was in my mom's closet, I was digging through something and found my birth certificate. It said McGraw. My name was Smith as a kid because my stepdad's name was Horace Smith."
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Most people know that McGraw is sober. But what they might not know is that he owes a lot of his sobriety to his wife, Faith Hill.
"I remember a moment when I was getting out of bed and going to the liquor cabinet and taking a big shot at 8:00 in the morning and thinking, 'I have to wake the kids up,'" McGraw recalls to Esquire. "I went straight to my wife and said, 'This is where I'm at.' I was scared. She just grabbed me and hugged me and changed my life."
3. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2006, McGraw received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Although he was by then already a big star, his celebrity status has only grown in the years since then. When McGraw received his star, he had only starred in two films, Black Cloud and Friday Night Lights, the latter earning him rave reviews and his first awards nominations for acting. Flicka came out shortly after McGraw received his star.
McGraw's star is at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard.
4. It took him six singles to have a No. 1 hit at radio.
McGraw is by now a mainstay at country radio, where he has been for 30 years. But he is far from an overnight success story. In fact, his first four singles, released between 1991 and 1993 on his self-titled freshman record, failed to crack the Top 40. In 1994, he released "Indian Outlaw," which landed in the Top 10. Fortunately, in 1994, he also had his first No. 1 hit, with "Don't Take the Girl."
