With the holidays just around the corner, country star Tim McGraw took a little time during A Very Grammy Christmas on Friday to talk about the one Christmas that changed his life forever.

"My mom used to hide Christmas presents in the closet," McGraw told the other performers on the CBS special (featured below).

"I remember going through her closet one day and looking for Christmas presents," he continued, "And I found this little box and I opened it up and my birth certificate was in there."

In reading his own birth certificate, the eleven-year-old future country singer discovered that his last name wasn't Smith as he'd previously thought. It was McGraw and his birth father was in fact baseball player Tug McGraw.

"That's when I found out that my stepdad wasn't my dad and that my real dad was a professional baseball player…" explained the Meanwhile Back At Mama's singer. "And that was a Christmas experience for me. I was looking for Christmas presents and I saw that."

Not only did the discovery lead Tim to seek out his real father, it changed the way he saw himself forever.

"In a lot of ways it changed my trajectory in my life," noted the singer, "And the things I wanted to do and the things that I thought that I could become."

In knowing the success Tug had achieved, Tim realized that he too could accomplish something great. "It gave me something to shoot for."

Married to fellow country singer Faith Hill for 18 years, Tim is now a father himself with three daughters.

A Very Grammy Christmas aired on CBS Friday, Dec. 5.

Tags
Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Music