Tim McGraw Says He Was Never ‘Angry’ With His Dad for Abandoning Him as a Kid
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Tim McGraw reflects on discovering who his father was at age 11, in a new interview with Esquire.
His dad, Tug Mcgraw, was a major league baseball player for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
Instead of being angry about his father's abandonment, the country star said the discovery gave him hope for his future.
If you're a true Tim McGraw fan, then you probably know he's a momma's boy. Last year, the 54-year-old released the touching single, "I Called Momma" to honor the hardships she experienced while raising him including money problems and multiple abusive marriages—all of which happened after McGraw's dad left.
The country star went 11 years without knowing who his father was, until one day, he found his birth certificate. The piece of paper revealed that he was the son of Tug McGraw, a major league relief pitcher for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. After learning that he left the family to find fame and success, it would've been easy for Tim to harbor resentment, especially knowing what his mom had been through. But he couldn't.
"People ask me, 'How could you have a relationship with your father? You were growing up in nothing. He was a millionaire baseball player. He knew you were there, and he didn’t do anything,'" Tim recently told Esquire. "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?"
According to Today, Tim met his dad the same year he found his birth certificate and didn't see him again until he was 18. Tug died in 2004 after losing his battle with brain cancer, and although the pair didn't have a conventional father-son relationship, Tug's role as a professional athlete inspired Tim, playing a role in his decision to be a musician.
“It changed what I thought I could do with my life coming from the circumstances I came from,” he told Today in 2019. “I felt like when I found that out, you know, he’s a professional baseball player who’s successful, to me, it made me think that blood is in my veins, so that ability is in there. So I found sort of that grit inside me that he must have had in order to succeed at what he did. And it changed what I thought I could make out of my life.”
That was certainly a revolutionary moment for Tim, who ended up in the major leagues of country music, but he still gives immense credit to his mom for helping him get there.
"She always provided for us and she always made me feel like we could outdream our needs and that was something she always instilled in us," he told Today. "Our mom is our hero. She's the one that taught us to persevere."
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