Tim McGraw has his high school ring to thank for his superstar career. It was his high school ring that led McGraw to purchase his first guitar, a gift that keeps on giving, decades later.

“I’d had a guitar in high school, but I didn’t mess around with it much because I was an athlete,” the 58-year-old says. “I was always playing ball, so I didn’t mess around with it much. But when I was in my first year of college, the first summer of college, I had some roommates. Everybody had left for the summer, and I had a job, so I was still living in the house. All my roommates had left, and so I had some free time on my hands. So, I actually went to a pawn shop and pawned my high school ring and bought an acoustic guitar.”

Fortunately, McGraw’s grandfather found out that he got rid of his high school ring, and bought it back for McGraw. But the investment the Louisiana native made back then turned out to be the best money he could have ever spent.

“[I] sat there all summer looking at chord books and watching CMT,” he recalls. “Seeing where they put their fingers, and over summer I learned about 50 songs. I started playing by myself, playing for tips at a catfish house, and that was really my first gig.”

Tim McGraw Releases New Song, “King Rodeo” From Next Album

McGraw has a hit single at radio with “Paper Umbrellas,” his collaboration with Parker McCollum. He also just released “King Rodeo,” a song he wrote with Tom Douglas ahead of the inaugural Music City Rodeo.

The song says in part, “So the spotlight’s faded, you moved a little past your prime / Don’t let ’em make you jaded, ’cause you can’t turn back time / Tomorrow’s like a woman, you can’t understand / Lady Luck’s been good to you, so take her by the hand / Hey King Rodeo.”

McGraw’s last studio album was  Standing Room Only, which was released in 2023. He later released his Poet’s Resumé EP, later that same year. The record featured five new songs, including “One Bad Habit,”  his 47th No. 1 hit.

McGraw chose to release “Paper Umbrellas” since it was one of his favorite tracks on Standing Room Only.

“That song was on my Standing Room Only album, and we were getting ready to pick a new single,” McGraw explains. “I wanted to bring something off of that album, and there were a couple of choices we had, but I always loved that record, one of my favorite records on the album, and I wanted to freshen it up a little bit because it had been out for a while on the album.”

Find “King Rodeo,” “Paper Umbrellas” and all of McGraw’s music and upcoming shows at TimMcGraw.com.