The actor and country music superstar chats in-depth with Forbes about his new Paramount Plus series ‚1883‘ and reveals what fans can expect from his upcoming live tour.<\/b>
\nHis hit song \u201cHumble And Kind\u201d is not just a sweet melody when it comes the man we call Tim McGraw. When speaking with the passionate actor and country music superstar, he seems to live and breathe those positive words with his naturally engaging and welcoming presence as we discussed his new television series 1883, which is now streaming on Paramount Plus. \u201cI wasn\u2019t looking for anything to do,\u201d McGraw reveals to me about his journey finding this project alongside his fellow superstar wife Faith Hill. \u201cI wasn\u2019t looking for a film, wasn\u2019t looking for a series for sure, anything like that. When we read the script, Faith and I both read the script, it was magic. It was so well-written.\u201d McGraw goes on to say that he and Hill have been big fans of the hit Yellowstone series since the very beginning, a modern storytelling starring Kevin Costner that is set in the same fictional universe as 1883, with McGraw\u2019s project being a prequel origin story. McGraw continues about his admiration for this original tale saying, \u201cWhen something\u2019s that good, as an artist, that\u2019s what moves you. That\u2019s what makes you want to do stuff. It\u2019s not about looking for a project or doing a project just to be doing a project. It\u2019s about something that viscerally moves you and that\u2019s what this script did.\u201d On 1883, McGraw plays James Dutton, the man who initially founded Yellowstone Ranch. Early on in this new series, it becomes very clear that Dutton is a man that will protect his family from the outside world at any cost, a mentality McGraw says he relates to all too well. \u201cI have three daughters and a wife and grew up with two sisters and my mom. There\u2019s that sort of protection mode that I have instinctively anyway. To be able to bring that to life on-screen and put that into extenuating circumstances was hard to turn down and something that I felt like I could put myself into pretty easily.\u201d This will not be the first time McGraw has stepped into the on-screen shoes of Dutton. What began as just one brief stint on Yellowstone has blossomed into fully developed characters on 1883, thanks to the working relationship between McGraw and Yellowstone co-creator & 1883 creator Taylor Sheridan. \u201cWe had done a flashback scene in Yellowstone last year. I didn\u2019t know Taylor – he called and wanted to know if I\u2019d be interested in being on the show. I said I\u2019d love to but I don\u2019t want to be just some singing cowboy. I said if there was something interesting, I would love to do it. He said, I have an idea, give me a week. He called back a week later and he came up with the idea of me playing the original Dutton who founded Yellowstone Ranch in 1880s and doing a flashback sequence of it. To me, that was very interesting. Then it turned into Alright, you\u2019re going to have a wife. You think Faith would like to play it? I asked Faith and she said she\u2019d love to. We sort of did that and he called me a couple of months after that and said I showed the scenes to the studio and I think that they want to buy a prequel to Yellowstone based on these scenes. Are you and Faith in? We were like of course we\u2019re in! Then when he started sending the scripts, it was a no-brainer. We were floored by it and we were just driven to do it.\u201d McGraw and Hill bring their undeniable chemistry to the roles of James and Margaret, a family journeying west with their two children during an era in America faced with piling conflict and hardships. Now married for 25 years, McGraw shares with me what it was like working on-camera alongside his real-life wife. \u201cThere are times when the cameras just disappear for us, but it can be difficult as well because we are married and we do bring that chemistry to the table. At the same time, we don\u2019t want people to look at Tim & Faith – we want people to look at James & Margaret. So, there\u2019s a fine line of carrying the chemistry that we have together as a married couple and erasing who we are as famous people to become these characters. It\u2019s a really fine line that you have to walk and navigate and hopefully, we\u2019ve been able to pull that off and tweak our relationship just enough to where it turns into Margaret & James\u2019s relationship and not Tim & Faith\u2019s.\u201d Also starring Sam Elliott, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett, and even strong appearances by Tom Hanks and Billy Bob Thornton, McGraw has nothing but praise for his entire ensemble of dedicated actors on 1883. \u201cFrom literally a role that has one line to the biggest roles in the show, everybody brought their A-Game. It\u2019s just a great troupe of actors. I think people will be blown away by the characters and the actors of this show.\u201d 1883 is not the only project currently on McGraw\u2019s plate. Last month, he released a new holiday single \u201cChristmas All Over The World\u201d and he is preparing for his 17-city national \u201cMcGraw Tour 2022 \u201d which kicks off in February in San Antonio. I asked McGraw if his loyal country fans should expect more of his older hits and more of his newer music on this latest tour. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a mixture. That\u2019s the toughest thing when you\u2019re putting together a tour, especially when you\u2019ve been doing it as long as I have, is figuring out what songs are going to make the setlist and what songs aren\u2019t because you can\u2019t get them all in and you\u2019re not going to get everybody\u2019s favorite song in. So you just try to create an atmosphere that flows well and hits the high points for most people. There\u2019s always going to be somebody that walks away and gets disappointed because they didn\u2019t hear the one song they wanted to hear but you can\u2019t play them all, so (laughs) that\u2019s the toughest thing is putting together a setlist but this will have a combination of almost a career span of my music.\u201d Being a top recording artist for more than three decades now, I wondered how McGraw\u2019s mindset and priorities have evolved within the music business, as the way money is made and the way people access music today has changed significantly over these past 30 years. \u201cCertainly the business model has changed quite a bit in music because when I first started out, it was about selling records and you sold a lot of records. That was on the same playing field as touring. The economics were pretty close to the same. Now, it\u2019s not about selling records anymore because nobody really sells records and when you do, it\u2019s not that much money involved in it. So, it\u2019s about touring where money is made. And with Covid, it\u2019s really changed that dynamic as well because you want to do it as safely as you possibly can and you want to do it in a responsible way. So, you\u2019re constantly shifting, you\u2019re constantly looking at the landscape, and trying to figure out the best way to go about it.\u201d As we wrapped up our conversation, I left McGraw with a light-hearted question, wondering what his plans are in the McGraw household this Christmas. \u201cThe couch, football, and the fireplace. That\u2019s going to be my world for a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n