Chart Rewind: In 2004, Tim McGraw Landed His Longest-Leading No. 1 With ‘Live Like You Were Dying’

On July 17, 2004, Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, beginning a seven-week command. It stands the longest-leading hit among his 26 No. 1s.

The inspirational ballad, McGraw’s 20th Hot Country Songs leader, was written by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman. McGraw co-produced it with Byron Gallimore and Darran Smith.

The track was released as the lead single from McGraw’s same-named LP, which launched at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, becoming the seventh of his 17 leaders, and the all-genre Billboard 200, where he logged the third of his four chart-toppers.

“Live Like You Were Dying” won several major awards, including a Grammy for best country song and song and single of the year honors at the 2004 Country Music Association Awards. It also became a crossover hit, rising to No. 4 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.

“It really does sum up the concept of living in the moment and not putting things off,” co-writer Nichols told Billboard in 2004. “Craig and I play lots of songwriter shows and it seems, without fail, at the end of every show, someone will come up to us and they are just compelled to tell us what that song has meant to them or a family member or a friend. I think it really just speaks and resonates in a way that I think is just universal. As songwriters, that’s our job, and I feel like we did our job pretty well that day.”

McGraw was born May 1, 1967, in Delhi, La., the son of Elizabeth “Betty” D’Agostino and Major League Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw, who played for the New York Mets (1965-74) and Philadelphia Phillies (1975-84). (Tim didn’t learn that Tug was his father until he was 11.)

Now 58, McGraw has been married to Faith Hill since 1996. He boasts 56 Hot Country Songs top 10s, from “Indian Outlaw” in 1994 through “I Called Mama” in 2020. On Country Airplay, he has achieved 29 leaders. He most recently reached the latter list’s top 10 with “One Bad Habit,” which hit No. 5 last November.

McGraw has live dates lined up this summer, including Aug. 30 at Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, where, expanding upon his lineage’s baseball legacy, he’ll headline the venue’s first-ever concert.