Tim McGraw Keeps His Songwriters a Secret

When Tim McGraw begins the process of looking for material for his records, he's looking for a lot of different things. The one thing the superstar isn't paying attention to with the tunes he pitched is the names of the songwriters. In fact, he purposely avoids finding out who penned the songs in order to allow the best material to make the album.

"I don't really look at names when I'm looking at songs," Tim tells GAC, "because I'm scared if I pay attention to who wrote the song, or I see a friend's name, that two things will happen: When I see a friend's name, either I won't think it's any good because they're my friend, or I'll cut it just because they're my friend."

Tim adds that his practice of not looking at the writers' names is "a subliminal thing. If you don't recognize a name or if it's somebody new you may not listen to it. I just record them, and half the time I don't even know who wrote the song until I see the liner notes of the album and look at them."

Tim knows by now that his latest single, the title track of the recently-released 'Southern Voice,' was written by Tom Douglas and Bob DiPiero.