Tim McGraw recently sat down with Billboard to preview his new album Standing Room Only, which was released today on one of the bigger country music release dates that we can remember.
If you look around the music industry, you’ll see that country music is having a pretty big moment. Today’s release of Zach Bryan’s self titled album, Turnpike Troubadours’ first album in almost six years, and McGraw’s sixteenth studio project have all gotten country music fans excited.
And that paired with the current Billboard Top 100 list, which features Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” at number one, Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” at number, and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” at number three, it’s hard to say that country music isn’t running the industry tables for the time being.
When McGraw sat down with Billboard to speak about his new album and the state of country music, he was excited that the genre was doing so well and that it seemed to be bringing in new fans thanks to country music reaching into other styles. The three-time Grammy award winner was definitely pumped that country songs were claiming the top spots on the Hot 100 charts:
“I love it. The more we can bring to the party, the better. Country music has consistently grown, for a long time. When new people discover it, and they find out, if they didn’t think they liked it, then they will hear something and all of a sudden they will discover other people.
I think for a long time, the country music industry fought that – fought the crossover idea, or the idea that other people are listening to their music or other stations are playing their music.”
McGraw then goes on to elaborate on that “crossover success” that country artists sometimes experience, and mentions that his wife Faith Hill kind of got caught up in some of the more negative aspects of it all:
“My wife got the brunt end of that quite a bit when she was having a lot of crossover success. In my mind, I think you miss the point when you feel that way, because not only is it good for the artist that that happens to, but it’s good for all the other artists as well.”
The “Standing Room Only” singer thinks that its good for country to sometimes seep into other genres, and it should be viewed in a more positive light considering it can bring more eyes and ears to country music.
And when asked about the topics and storytelling of country music as of late that has helped propel artists like Oliver Anthony to the forefront of not only country music, but music as a whole, McGraw thinks that’s the beauty of songwriting and bring songs to life for fans to interpret and appreciate:
“As an artist, you just make your music and it lands where it lands and you take the consequences of it, either way.
I can’t speak to what other artists do when they’re making music; what I can say is I’ll let my music and the kind of music that I make and the kind of messages I put out, speak for itself.”
The full interview can be seen below, where McGraw also dives into some of the details of his new album Standing Room Only, which was released earlier today:
