‘Catch of the Day’ – Tim McGraw – “How I’ll Always Be” [AUDIO]

Today we turn our focus to a country superstar, who has 15 #1 albums, 11 platinum albums and 27 #1 hits. Impressive numbers that surpass all recording artists whose careers started after 1990.

Tim McGraw was born in Delhi, LA and early in life was raised by a single mother. When Tim was young she married Horace Smith, and Tim grew up with the name Timothy Smith, believing that his step-father was his father. It wasn't until Tim was 11 and discovered his birth certificate in his mother's closet that he learned the truth. After the discovery, Tim's mom took her son to meet his father, New York Met pitcher Tug McGraw, whom she had met and dated while he was a minor leaguer in the Mets' farm system. But for the next 7 years the senior McGraw denied that Tim was his son. It wasn't until Tim was preparing for college that his father relented and accepted his son.

Proving that the nut didn't fall far from the tree, Tim attended the Northwest Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana Monroe) on a baseball scholarship. Tim didn't make the varsity team in his short time at NLU, choosing to concentrate on his music more than pitching, frequently performing for tips at local clubs and restaurants. Despite claims that he was so bad his roommates would often hide his guitar to keep him from playing, Tim dropped out of college and headed to Nashville.

After struggling in Nashville, Tim joined his mom and step father in Jacksonville, FL. He attended Florida Community College of Jacksonville for a couple of semester, all will sitting in with local bands. On May 9th, 1989 McGraw's life changed forever. That was the day his hero, singer Keith Whitley passed away. McGraw went in and dropped out of college that day and headed to Nashville for good.

In 1990, McGraw cut a demo single and gave a copy of it to his father. In return, Tug played the demo for a friend who was an executive at Curb Records, who in turn played it for other executives at the label. Within weeks, Tim was offered a contract by Curb and went into the studio to cut his debut single "What Room Was The Holiday In", which was released in March of 1991. The single would become the only single in McGraw's 25 year recording career to fail to chart. It, along with would lead to his self-titled debut album, which would produce three more singles. The album would become McGraw's only studio album to not hit #1 and also his only studio album to not achieve a minimum gold certification. The four singles from the album would all fail to crack the top-40, his only four singles to have not reached at least the top-20.

For McGraw, 14 studio albums, 10 compilation packages, 51 top-10 singles and 27 #1 hits, not to mention several TV and movie roles have made him unquestionably the reigning king of country music. His most recent album, Damn Country Music has supplied the top-10 hits "Top Of The World" and his most recent #1 hit "Humble and Kind". The third single from the album is in our spotlight today. Tim McGraw and "How I'll Always Be" is your Independence Day Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.