Tim McGraw Really Values Faith Hill’s Musical Opinions: ‘It’s Hard Not to Listen to Her’
Country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill will celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary in October, having raised three children, gone through life's highs and lows together and built a love- and respect-filled relationship over the last two-plus decades. The two have toured and released music together frequently throughout their careers, and McGraw says that when it comes to his solo music, too, Hill is a trusted advisor.
When McGraw was recording new songs for his forthcoming solo album, Hill was among the star's confidants, listening to and offering opinions on his new material. She and the couple's daughters, Gracie, Maggie and Audrey, helped McGraw select the sentimental "I Called Mama" as a single.
"She was like a hand that weighed in big time on the song," McGraw recently Told The Boot and other media members. "And so, when she puts her hand on something ... it's hard to not to not listen to her for sure."
It was a struggle for McGraw to get through "I Called Mama," written by Lance Miller, Marv Green and Jimmy Yeary, the first time he went to play it for Hill, in fact. "I wanted Faith to hear it, but ... I wanted to sing it to her," McGraw recalls. "I said, 'I want you to hear this song.' So I sat down at the kitchen table and started singing it, and I couldn't get through it.
"I got to the chorus, and every time I tried to get to the chorus, I would fall apart on it," he continues. "She would start crying because I was crying."
While "I Called Mama" reminds McGraw how important his own mother, Betty, has been in his life, he also connects it to Hill's experiences raising their girls. "I feel, as a dad, so fortunate that they could look at her, look to her, as a guidepost for their lives and as women," he admits.
"She's just a special lady," McGraw gushes.
McGraw has not yet gotten to play "I Called Mama" for his mom in person, but he did send her the studio version of the song before it was released in early May. "I sent it to her and I got -- my mom's gotten better with the phone now, so I got crying emojis," he remembers.
The single artwork is a photo of a young Betty, who had McGraw when she was a teenager and raised him and his siblings largely as a single mother. The picture on the track's cover shows her, McGraw says, around the time she found out she was pregnant with her son.
LOOK: Tim McGraw + Faith Hill's Sweetest Moments