Country superstar Tim McGraw delighted his fans when he performed at the Field of Dreams baseball diamond over the weekend. The deeply personal move had a special meaning as it took place on what would have been his late father Tug McGraw's birthday. Posting a video from the special night, Tim captioned the post: "Iowa! You guys brought it last night! First ever concert @thefieldofdreamsmoviesite and on Tug’s birthday too! Hard to top that!!!" In the video Tim adds: "Would’ve been my dad’s 81st birthday. I’m gonna be looking at the cornfield out there and seeing if Tug and Hank walk out and say hello tonight."
Watch the video here...
Fans rushed to the comment section in support with heart emojis and words of support.
In the video the 55-year-old crooner also shares a clip of him singing happy birthday to his father, who died aged just 59.
Tim got to know his father later on in life and didn't meet Tug until he was 11 years old. "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.'
"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?" Tim told Esquire.
Sadly Tug died of cancer in 2004 just before Tim released his hit song "Live Like You Were Dying"
In the 2021 interview with Matthew McConaughey on McGraw’s podcast, Tim spoke of his father's last days.
"[‘Live Like You Were Dying’] was sent to me in the middle of my father’s diagnosis of glioblastoma brain cancer and going through all of his treatments," he said.
"He stayed at my cabin out at the farm, and we were spending a lot of nights out there with my uncle and my brother, just hanging out, listening to music and watching football games. We spent a couple of weeks there before he passed away in the bedroom there in the cabin."
“My Uncle Hank was there, my dad’s older brother, and we had been recording all day and about three o’clock in the morning, I looked around at the band. I said, ‘I think it’s time to do this song.’ We spent the next three hours up until sunup recording this song, and my uncle collapsed on a couch crying every time we did a pass of it. That’s got to be one of the most special memories I have of making any music anywhere.”
Uncle "Hank" passed away in July 2024 and the McGraw family took to social media to honor the man. "This weekend we lost the patriarch of the McGraw family. Our beloved ‘Uncle Hank.’ He was just an incredible man. He had a way of lighting up any room he walked into without trying."