Tim McGraw Focused on Emma Stone’s Mom During His 2015 Oscars Performance

While Tim McGraw was singing Glen Campbell's Grammy Award-winning song "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" at the 2015 Oscars, he focused on one person's face. It wasn't his wife Faith Hill. It wasn't any of the Hollywood superstars in attendance. And, no, it wasn't a seat filler.

Instead, McGraw says he focused on Emma Stone's mother as he sang.

"That gave me some relief or comfort," he tells USA Today and laughs, "I certainly wasn't going to look around and find Meryl Streep. Then I'd certainly lose my [stuff] then."

The awards show performance was incredibly intimate and emotional -- a moment that even an accomplished country star like McGraw felt pretty nervous about. After all, he didn't have a backing band, and his trusty guitar was nowhere to be found. It was just him and a microphone, singing one of the most touching songs country music has ever heard.

"I realized I did everything I could to be as exposed as possible. I was on a high wire without a net," says McGraw. "I could not have done anything more to make myself as naked as possible in front of all these people. I put myself in a position where I had to be dead-on perfect."

Dressed in a black tuxedo and cowboy hat, McGraw's appearance was just as polished as his performance, and the audience's response -- a rousing round of applause -- was made even better by the reaction from Campbell's wife Kim, who was in attendance with their children. When the camera panned to her after McGraw finished singing, she was visibly moved by the performance.

Campbell himself was not able to attend the Oscars due to his declining health and struggle with Alzheimer's, but McGraw deeply hopes that, somehow, the country legend is able to comprehend the impact of his honest song.

"I hope that even for a second that [Campbell] was able to understand what he's done," McGraw reflects. "I hope he saw how well his song has done and how it has touched people."

"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" is featured in Campbell's documentary, Glen Campbell ... I'll Be Me. The film documents his final tour, daily struggle with Alzheimer's and memories from his earlier years, and it features comments and stories from a slew of country stars and public figures. Campbell and his family have been incredibly open about the disease, even as he struggles to put words together and forms incoherent sentences.

"What they are doing and how they went forward with Glen's disease and made it public and shine a light on it — it's so brave. We talked about that. And I said that it's an honor for me to represent the family. I told them that. To represent Glen, his legacy and what he's done," McGraw says. "This is Glen Campbell's most heroic legacy, the best legacy he could ever leave the world. How he's put a spotlight on Alzeimer's. It took a lot of guts to do that."

It took a lot of guts, too, for McGraw to sing such a touching and vulnerable song at the Oscars, but he was rewarded well when he returned home in the morning: He revealed on Twitter that he was welcomed through the door with a big sign of congratulations from his family.

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