When Tim McGraw told his mom he was leaving college to be a country musician, this is what she said

When country icon Tim McGraw was just 11 or 12 years old, he watched the Al Pacino film And Justice For All, and from that day forward, he knew what he wanted to be a lawyer.

He did all the right things — got good grades in high school, landed a baseball scholarship at Northeast Louisiana University and aimed to start pre-law.

"I was going to go to law school and that was going to be the trajectory I was going to take in life," says McGraw in an interview with Q host Tom Power.

WATCH | Tim McGraw's full interview with Tom Power:

But soon after, other forces began to take hold.

"Right off the bat in college, I picked up a guitar and started playing music. Then I started to learn how to float kegs at my fraternity," he says. "So the law career started slowly drifting away."

Not long after, McGraw decided to do what countless other aspiring musicians have done: sell everything he had and move to Nashville to try his fortunes in the music business.

"I had some water skis I had to sell. I sold my car. I sold my shotgun. I mean, I sold everything I had," remembers McGraw.

But parting with his favourite things was nothing compared to the moment when he had to tell his mother about his new plan. According to McGraw, his mom had a hard life, and she wanted nothing more than for him to get a college degree and succeed.

So when he picked up the phone to tell her that after two and a half years of university he was dropping out, he knew the conversation wouldn't be easy — especially since McGraw had been more of a sporty child and hadn't shown much interest in music.

"I was scared to tell her — not scared of my mom because I knew what a sweet lady she was. But she was a tough lady too," he says.

"But she said, 'I'm surprised you haven't done it already, and I think you should go ahead,'" remembers McGraw, his voice cracking.

"To get that affirmation from your mother, to throw everything away, sell everything you have, buy a Greyhound bus ticket and arrive at Nashville at 3:00 in the morning, and she says go do it," says McGraw.

"She knew that I was choosing a life that was going to be hard and there was a 99 per cent chance it wasn't going to work out. She's been my backbone for a long time."

Here on Earth

Of course, McGraw's plan did work out in a very big way. He has released 15 studio albums, 10 of which reached number one on the Top Country Albums charts.

He has won three Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, and his Soul2Soul II Tour with wife Faith Hill is one of the most successful tours in country music history. In all, he has sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

He has also tried his hand at acting, with roles in films including The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock, Friday Night Lights and Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.

Now he's releasing Here on Earth, a collection of vignettes about love, family and community that was partly inspired by a quote attributed to Gloria Vanderbilt: "We are not put on this earth to see through one another. We are put on this earth to see one another through."

"I wanted to put together a tapestry of life, sort of a 30,000-foot view of life as we see it, and also be able to dive in at different points throughout the album and get really intimate and get into personal relationships — in your relationship with your family, in your relationship with your community and all those things," says McGraw.

"And that quote really meant a lot to all of us as we were putting this project together."

In one of the album's songs, I Called Mama, MaGraw sings about calling his mom after a close friend dies. The track was written by long-time friend and collaborator Lance Miller, and as soon as McGraw heard it, he knew he wanted to record it.

"I wanted to sing it to Faith to see if she liked the song. So it took me about 10 minutes to learn the first verse and chorus after I'd heard the demo, and when I tried to sing it to her, every time I would get to the hook line, I would just fall apart. Just gobs of tears were coming and I couldn't finish the song," he remembers.

"So when that happens to you as an artist, you know that's something you have to pay attention to."

McGraw recorded the song before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but now, with much of the world stuck at home and unable to see loved ones, it's taken on a whole new meaning.

"Now it's about who's important to you. Who matters to you? Who can put their arms around you, and make you feel better about what's going on in the world, and what's happening today? And who can settle you down? Who can find your centre for you?" he says.

"That's what that song really means to me now in a lot of different ways."

Love, respect and understanding

This year, McGraw has also spoken out about the other major shift happening in America: the country's long overdue reckoning with centuries of racism.

After the murder of George Floyd, McGraw posted a long statement about how "love, respect and understanding of each other is a light to guide our way."

The country star says his respect-driven life philosophy came from his mom, and from the community he grew up in — especially his high school coach who taught him that "no matter what their circumstances are, no matter where they came from, no matter what colour they were, no matter what their belief system was, if they were good people, then you should respect that person."

McGraw also believes that protesting and being patriotic are not opposites, but rather equal sides of the same coin. When people stand up and say that something needs to change, others need to listen and act.

If we don't start paying attention to what people are saying and try to do our best to correct it, then we're not going to move forward- Tim McGraw

"That's the way that the world evolves. That's the way people evolve. That's what our country has evolved," he says.

"And if we don't start paying attention to what people are saying and try to do our best to correct it, then we're not going to move forward."

Country music isn't usually known for its progressive values, but in recent months some of the genre's biggest stars have stepped up to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement — even though it meant blowback to them.

"I'm not going to speak for country music or music in general or anybody else. I can only speak for me and I can speak in my heart and my soul and the way that Faith and I grew up, in the way that we love people and respect people, in the way we've taught our daughters to love and respect people, is the way that we feel is best for us and best for our community," says McGraw, who has three daughters with Hill.

"If you can look in the mirror and feel that way about yourself, good on you. If you can look at your kids and know that they feel that way about you, good on them and good on you. And if they can take that to their school, take it to their community, take it to their country, and then take it to the world, then we're doing good things."

Written by Jennifer Van Evra. Produced by Vanessa Nigro.