Tim McGraw may be a famous singer who has built an impressive life, but he still faced some heartache in his childhood, including not finding out his father’s identity until he was 11.
The three-time Grammy winner, 59, has been married to his wife, Faith Hill, for 20 years, with whom he shares three children, and has enjoyed a successful turn as one of the biggest names in country music after a childhood in Louisiana.
One such instance was his learning that his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his real father and was using his surname as a result.
However, that all changed when he was 11 years old, when he discovered his birth certificate in his mother’s closet and learned his biological father was actually baseball player Tug McGraw.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted he had already been a fan of the baseball player, which made him an even bigger fan of the sport.
“The first time I ever came to New York, I rode up in a limo with Tug from Philadelphia,” he recalled at the time. “And we rode up with Rusty Staub and had dinner at Rusty’s restaurant, and everybody was coming over asking for autographs and pictures with him as Rusty. I thought, ‘Wow, this is a whole different world!”
However, things weren’t all smooth, as Tug denied paternity until he was 18, and the two did form a close relationship afterward until the former Mets and Phillies star died in 2004 at the age of 59.
“We talked a lot about baseball once I got to know him,” McGraw said. “We called it ‘choir practice’ when we got together; we’d hang around at night with a few Jamesons and talk about baseball.”
He also addressed the concerns some had about his choosing to have a relationship with his father as he got older, noting he didn’t hold the past against him.
“‘How could you have a relationship with your father?’” he recalled being asked in a 2021 interview with Esquire.
“‘You were growing up in nothing. He was a millionaire baseball player. He knew you were there, and he didn’t do anything.’”
“But when I found out Tug McGraw was my dad, it gave me something in my little town in Louisiana, something that I would have never reached for. How could I ever be angry?”
While his relationship with his father raised eyebrows over the years, McGraw’s relationship with his own daughters has not, as he has been very present through all of their big moments.
He and Hill welcomed Gracie in 1997, Maggie in 1998, and Audrey in 2001.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
