McGraw grew up in a small community, the only child of a waitress mother and successful baseball player father, Frank Edwin “Tug” McGraw, who was often travelling the USA whilst playing for various teams. He was an avid sports player growing up, and attended the University of Mississippi through a baseball scholarship, before dropping out to pursue his musical career.
After handing out demos trying to catch a break in the early 90’s, McGraw's father happened to be playing one of his son's songs in the car whilst his friend, a record executive at Curb Records was sat in the passenger seat. The label quickly snapped him up but his first album was a commercial failure, not charting in the top 40.
However in 1994, McGraw recorded and released his second album, "Not a Moment Too Soon", which was a smash hit, reaching the top of the country charts. The following year, McGraw demonstrated he had serious chops as a country singer when his third album “All I Want” sold over 2 million copies and hit the top of the charts again.
In 1996 McGraw married fellow country star Faith Hill, and went on to release ten more successful albums within 18 years, as well as an unlikely collaborative chart smash hit with rap superstar Nelly, “Over and Over”. In 2006 McGraw went on a 55 city tour with his wife called “Soul2Soul II Tour”, which was a massive triumph, generating revenue of almost $89M, making it the most profitable country tour of all time.
Later on in his career, McGraw has also enjoyed a successful stint in the acting business, starring in the award winning sports drama “The Blind Side” and action thriller “The Legend” alongside Jamie Foxx.
The country star has also become known for his charity work, in 2010, McGraw and his wife put on a benefit concert called “Nashville Rising” to aid flood victims in the south, they also worked as aid transporters during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Absolutely Great. The crowd was loving him. He involves the fans and lets them know they matter. He had a little boy on stage when he did an acoustic and gave him his guitar, this was awesome. There were 2 little girls in front of us with their father, they knew the words to his songs and were having a blast. He is just grateful for the fans and you know that when you go to his concert. He performed old hits as well as new. I just loved it I have seen him 7 times and will see him again when he is in Charlotte.