Happy Birthday! Tim McGraw is 45 on May 01
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Tim McGraw: Snapshot

Name: Tim McGraw
Date of Birth: May 01, 1967
Birth Place: Delhi, La.

The result of a brief affair, country singer Tim McGraw learned at age 11 that his real father was Tug McGraw, a top major-league relief pitcher. "Live Like You're Dying," a No. 1 single in 2004, paid tribute to Tug, who had recently passed away.

After dropping out of college, McGraw moved to Nashville, where he released his poorly received self-titled debut album. But "Indian Outlaw," the controversial single from Not a Moment Too Soon, was the first of many hit songs that would grace a string of multi-platinum albums. In 1996, McGraw married country stunner Faith Hill, and the duo's careers both flourished thanks to their chart-topping duets and tours. McGraw has since parlayed his fame into acting, in the football dramas Friday Night Lights and The Blind Side.

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Tim McGraw: Video

Star Talk

Catch up with PEOPLE's Country Special cover guy as he talks family, music and more at his shoot for last August's cover

(2:02)

Tim McGraw: Five Fun Facts

Tim McGraw was dubbed "country music's first metrosexual" by W magazine.
While helping stepfather Horace Smith deliver cottonseed throughout Louisiana, Tim McGraw first developed a passion for country music. The pair spent their long trips in Smith's 18-wheeler listening to country tunes.
Of his humble beginnings, Tim McGraw had this to say to the Washington Post in 1999, "I see it like [Roberto Benigni] at the Oscars: 'I want to thank my parents for giving me the best gift of all: poverty.' It gives you something to strive for."
Tim McGraw and wife Faith Hill have a rule that they're never apart for more than three days in a row.
Tim McGraw gave up his dream of becoming a lawyer (inspired by watching Al Pacino's ...And Justice for All) when he became a hard-partying college kid. "I got into school, picked up a guitar, joined a fraternity, and started sucking down kegs," he told Esquire in 2006. "Law went out the window when my grades came back."

Tim McGraw: Biography

1966: Florida Fling
Pitcher Tug McGraw heads to Jacksonville, Fla., to play for a minor league club. There, the future Mets player meets 18-year-old Betty Dagostino (now Trimble). They have a brief romance; Betty becomes pregnant; and Tug, unaware that she's expecting, leaves town. When Tim is seven months old, Betty marries Horace Smith, whom she tells Tim is his father.
1978: Winter
Pitching Papa
McGraw, at age 11, finds his birth certificate and sees his biological father's surname. He confronts Betty, who finally tells him his dad is baseball player Tug McGraw, a Philly's pitcher who had played for the Mets. Betty takes McGraw to meet Tug, who says, "I haven't been much of a father, so let's be friends," Betty tells PEOPLE in 1994.
circa 1984: A Budding Relationship
After years of sending Tug unanswered letters, McGraw is fed up, but asks his dad to chip in for college tuition. According to Esquire, Tug agrees on the condition that neither McGraw nor Betty contact him again. The younger McGraw asks for one last meeting, and when Tug sees his grown son, he drops the conditions and the pair begin to forge a relationship.