Tim McGraw doesn’t put him self in the category of “great songwriter.” In a recent interview with American Songwriter magazine, he explains how the song wins, and it has very little to do with who actually wrote it.

Look, it’s not easy. I’m not going to lie and say anybody can get a song to me any time they want. But if you look back on my career, I’ve had a lot of songs that were the songwriter’s first cut. I think on just about every album, there’s a songwriter or two that had their first cut.

It’s when you run across a guy, or somebody’s son or daughter or wife, and they tell you that getting that cut changed their life. That’s a reward for me because there are a lot of guys who have the talent that end up coming here for a couple of years, then leave and never show up again.

I’ve always written for every album. I’m just not a songwriter who’s going to be able to sit down and write every day. I might write a song every couple of months and write a good one every couple of years, maybe. It has to come to me in an inspired way. I can’t just sit down and write.

I’ve been doing this almost 25 years and to have a long career and a sustainable career, it’s got to be about the song. There have been tons of guys who only record what they write, and they’ve done great, but you have to let the song win. It’s different for every artist, but for me, I have to let the song win. I’m certainly not going to put myself in the category of great songwriters.

I’m always writing and if something sticks, it sticks. I get to write with great songwriters in town. Lori McKenna is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters who’s ever walked the planet. I get to write with her. The Warren Brothers are friends of mine and I write with them all the time. Lance Miller is a great songwriter. Tom Douglas – you can’t get any better than that. I write a lot of stuff but it’s got to stick.

Now, that’s not to say there will never be an entire album of tunes written by Tim himself…

One of these days it would be fun to go back and pick my favorites of things that I’ve written that never made an album, and do an album of that. And now that I can, I just might do it.

You can read the entire article here.

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