The country crooner, who didn't know that the late MLB star was his biological dad until he was 11, reveals that people often ask him how they could get along with each other.

• Aug 26, 2021

AceShowbiz - Tim McGraw has opened up about his complicated relationship with his late father. Revealing that he couldn't be angry at Tug McGraw although the latter did "nothing" during his childhood, the "Highway Don't Care" crooner explained the reason why.

The 54-year-old country star shared his story when sitting down with Esquire for its "What I've Learned" interview. "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,' " he first recalled.

"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," the husband of Faith Hill went on noting. "How could I ever be angry?"

Tim, who thought his stepfather Horace Smith was his biological dad when he was a kid, previously talked about Tug in 2013. "I didn't know he was my dad," he said of the former MLB player when speaking to late Larry King at that time.

"I was 11 years old and I was rummaging around in mom's closet and found a birth certificate. I was growing up in Louisiana and my mom was divorced and we were barely getting by," the musician further explained. "My [last] name was Smith. On my birth certificate, McGraw was scratched out and 'Smith' was written in by hand."

While appearing on "Oprah's Master Class" podcast in 2018, Tim recalled, "I met Tug the first time when I was 11, and it was just a quick sort of lunch and then seeing him play the game." He continued, "It certainly wasn't an acknowledgement that he was my father."

Claiming that his late dad "begged" his mom to drive him to Houston in the following year to watch his game, Tim elaborated, "She borrowed a car and we drove to Houston and he was playing at the Astrodome." The singer then detailed, "He'd left tickets for us 'cause she'd gotten in contact with his lawyer, I think, and his lawyer had said he'll leave tickets for you. We go to the Astrodome, we walk in, and they're warming up and he's down on the field."

"He always did this thing where a player would hit balls with a Fungo bat and hit it up in the air and he would catch 'em behind his back. So, he was doing that and I started yelling at him and then he wouldn't look at me. So, I spent 30 minutes trying to get this attention and he wouldn't look at me. So, I went and sat back down," Tim went on. "And then I never saw him again until I was 18."