Tim McGraw reflects on the most “controversial” songs of his career.
In a recent interview on “The Tim Ferriss Show,” the 58-year-old country singer talked about which songs he had to struggle with to get on the album and why it was such a big risk.
“I put ‘Indian Outlaw’ on my first album because no one liked it,” he says, when asked for an example of a song, explaining that he thought it was “Lightning in a Bottle.” “The label didn’t like it.[Producer]James Stroud didn’t like it. Byron[Gallimore, his longtime producer and collaborator]liked it, but I couldn’t convince James to let me record it, and I couldn’t convince the label either.”
According to the musician, the label told McGraw it was a bad song because it was “too controversial” and even told him they wouldn’t play it on the radio because it was “not country music.”
He recalled the night he first heard the song at the Hall of Fame Lounge and Hotel in Nashville, where he met songwriters Tommy and Max D. Burns, who played it live for him.
“I heard it the first night and started playing it right away,” McGraw said. “I learned it and started playing that song in all the clubs around town, honky-tonks around town. And as we traveled and played clubs all over the country, I was playing that song. And people loved it so much that we ended up having to play it two or three times a night, four times a night.”
Due to his love for the song and the praise it received at his shows, McGraw begged his record label to include it on his debut album, but the song was not included because “there was no input on the first album.”
When it came time to cut her second album, Not a Moment to Soon, the singer insisted on including it, stating, “I felt like this was either going to have a big impact or it would ruin my career forever.”
“Fortunately, it worked out,” McGraw added. “And I think the reason I didn’t become just a novelty act making noise with these kinds of funky, weird songs was because I was able to come right after that with ‘Don’t Take the Girl.’ I’ll forever credit those two songs together as setting my career in motion and giving me a momentum I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
The song became McGraw’s first Top 10 country hit and went platinum.
McGraw touched on the controversy over “Indian Outlaw” and explained, “I understand why it was controversial, because it was a stereotype, and it played on stereotypes of Native Americans.And there was a lot of controversy surrounding it, but I understood the controversy, so I wasn’t offended by the controversy.”
He continued, “I actually met with some Native American leaders. Some people liked the song, some people didn’t like the song. And my answer was, ‘Look, I understand your concerns. That’s not what the song was meant to be.’ , I understand your concerns. My opinion is, if you need to go after me to get attention and awareness, please use my song for that. Love it or hate it, if something good comes of it, by all means. I don’t mean to be offended.
The singer said that when he plays at a Native American casino, he offers to take the song off the set, but “99 percent of the time they say, ‘That’s why I hired you to sing that song.'” So they love it. So, that was really good for me. ”
In October 2025, the singer revealed that he had been at a difficult time in his career due to a series of injuries, which he said made him wonder if he would be able to perform again, adding that he almost quit his career.
“I’ve had four hip surgeries and double knee replacements in the last few years alone,” he told the crowd at a concert in Highland, Calif., at the time.
“And before I had my last hip surgery this spring, things had gotten so bad that I was really thinking and thinking about how I was going to get out of there. I didn’t want to do that, but I didn’t think things were going to get better,” he later added.
McGraw said he has since felt better and during his recovery wrote a song, “King Rodeo,” about aging and the struggles that come with it.
The song’s lyrics include, “Hey, King Rodeo, you look lonely/As if you’ve lost the one and only/The enthusiastic crowd isn’t around you/Whispers and shadows surround you.”
