Tim McGraw and Faith Hill: Side by side in life, music and gun control
Tim McGraw pulled Faith Hill into a quick hug and kissed her forehead as an audience of their peers and country music fans applauded their performance of their new single “The Rest of Our Life” at the 51st CMA Awards. Wearing a romantic red gown and with her hair in loose waves, Hill leaned into her husband and waved before the couple took a bow.
By noon the next day, McGraw had traded his black cowboy hat for a ballcap and Hill swapped her dress for a sweater and a pair of jeans, her hair pulled back under a well-worn hat, and the couple were excited and relieved their performance was such a hit.
“We were nervous,” McGraw admitted, explaining the title track from the couple’s new album is hard to sing and the awards show was the first time they had performed it live. “I was nervous when it started, and then Faith came out and we locked on to each other and we were in our own little world at that point.
“We were talking about it last night…what is it about these shows that makes you so unlike yourself?” Hill said. “We did the same thing yesterday morning, our routine. Then you’re driving to the CMAs and you feel yourself change."
“It’s like you lose control of your body,” McGraw adds.
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Faith Hill and Tim McGraw together Over the Years
The CMA moment was more than one month in the making — and the song’s namesake album, “The Rest of Our Life,” took years. Available now, “The Rest of Our Life” is an 11-song duets album the two have dreamed of since their daughters were young. The album’s accompanying "Soul2Soul" world tour sold out 80 shows in 2017 and more are booked in 2018. The tour marks the first time McGraw and Hill have toured together in a decade. Hill deliberately stopped touring to raise their three daughters. But now that their daughters are older, the timing felt right for the couple to move forward with their careers, side by side.
“We both turned 50 in the year of the tour so we thought that was a great time to do it because when will we get to do it again after turning 50?” McGraw said with a laugh, Hill seated beside him in a Music Row studio, looking at him in mild disbelief. “We may never get the opportunity to do it again. We may not be able to do it again."
“OK, stop,” she jumped in. “Are you serious? Look at you,” she said, referring to his highly toned frame.
The business piece of the puzzle fell into place when McGraw and Hill signed with Sony Music Nashville. Their new record deals mark the first time in their careers they are on the same label, which McGraw said significantly simplified the process of making their duets album.
"What I have found of both of them is that as iconic as they are and as accomplished as they are, they're just great people," said Sony Music Nashville chairman and CEO Randy Goodman. "This has been a labor of love project, and it's great stuff."
The couple worked together to decide on the 11 songs — McGraw said there were supposed to be only 10 tracks but that the couple added an extra to “shake it all out.” They didn’t want a classic duets album, but hoped to create a timeless collection of songs that still sounded “cool and fresh and interesting.”
“We didn’t want to get gimmicky with it,” McGraw said. “We wanted to find great songs and…songs that were told from different perspectives."
“That’s kind of like a marriage is,” Hill added. “Life together is sometimes when your friend, your best friend, your husband or your wife is needing a little extra help and you help carry the weight. You just have to walk beside one another."
“And you fail at it sometimes,” McGraw said.
“That’s right,” she agreed. “You require more help. I require more help, and that’s just part of the walk through life together.”
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Tim McGraw and Faith Hill at Bridgestone Arena
McGraw’s favorite tracks on the album include the romantic, cinematic “Cowboy Lullaby,” the Lori McKenna and Barry Dean co-penned “Damn Good at Holding On,” and “The Bed We Made,” co-written by McKenna, Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey.
When Hill heard her husband tick off the sexy song title, she snapped her head around and beamed at him.
McGraw kept talking, calling it “a unique way to talk about being passionate about each other.”
“She was scared of what I was going to say,” McGraw quipped.
“He just makes me smile,” Hill said, looking at her husband. “I don’t have a hole in my sweater, do I?”
“No, you don’t,” he replied.
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51st Annual CMA Awards red carpet
Charlie Cook, vice president of country formats for Cumulus Media, said it’s the couple’s open adoration for each other that continues to endear them to their peers and country music fans.
“I think that the fans see that they love each other, both in casual situations and when they are on stage performing,” Cook said. “ ‘Rest of Our Life’ tells their story and one that everyone aspires to in our personal lives.”
The couple are side by side in most things in life — literally and figuratively. McGraw said that even when they aren’t touring together they still manage to spend about 90 percent of their time with each other. And when it came to raising their daughters, Hill said they agreed she would “step away” from touring to be home with them. McGraw was — and still is — consistently charting hit songs, and Hill said it was the best financial decision for their family for him to be the one to keep touring. In addition, the couple tried to stagger their big projects so someone was always at home. Their goal, Hill said, was to give their girls “the most normal childhood possible.”
“When we were there with them at school events or wherever, we were their parents and truly known as Mr. and Mrs. McGraw,” she said. “It’s very important to us that they have their own identity. When we went back on the road to do this tour, it was kind of exciting because our girls, they were young when we did the last one, and they’ve never seen me in that way.”
It was that devotion as parents — and the increasing regularity of mass shootings — that recently led Hill and McGraw to publicly call for gun control. Country music fans are typically a conservative audience that places a premium on the Second Amendment. Artists in the genre are often hesitant to share opinions that might conflict with their fan base, but the singers view it as their duty as parents to start the conversation.
“What struck me so hard after the Vegas shooting — and this is the truth — it’s when the doctors and nurses came out and said they had never seen wounds of this magnitude because these are the kinds of wounds that you see on a battlefield in war,” Hill said. “That is wrong, period. Our military, our men and women have been fighting for this country and the democracy of this country for so long…and it’s not so we can have citizens walk this free country in this democracy and be afraid they’re going to be shot up by someone as if they were on the battlefield.”
McGraw has been a hunter since he was a child and said he loves the Second Amendment but that he is sure there are reasonable programs that could be instituted to work toward minimizing mass shootings.
“It starts with how we converse with our friends and neighbors and then how we elect people who are willing to talk instead of yell,” McGraw said. “It takes smart, thoughtful, pragmatic, common-sense approaches to things. It takes good ideas on both sides. And people have a right to express their opinions, but don’t yell your opinion at somebody and put your fingers in your ears. (We need to) get past this romantic idealism and get to a point that’s good for everybody and not just a segment.”
McGraw said he and Hill, together for 21 years, feel fortunate for their success at home and on stage. He said he “probably should have been kicked to the curb” many times, and he’s thankful he and Hill are back on stage and still enjoying life together.
“We don’t take that lightly,” he said, standing up at the end of the interview. “I think there’s an obligation to do your best every night when you go out there. You don’t always do that. You fail sometimes. But we appreciate what we have."
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