Nashville<\/a>, when he bumped into songwriters Tommy and Max D. Barnes, who played the song for him live.<\/p>\n\u201cI heard it that first night and I started playing it immediately,\u201d McGraw said. \u201cLearned it and started playing it in all the clubs around town, the honky-tonks around town, and when we would travel and play clubs all over the country, I was playing that song, and we\u2019d end up having to play it two or three times a night, four times a night, because people loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim McGraw performs during the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sept. 20, 2025. Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/p>\n
Due to his love of the song and the praise it was receiving at his shows, McGraw pleaded with his record label to include it on his debut album, but because he \u201cdidn\u2019t have any say-so on the first album,\u201d it was left off.<\/p>\n
When it came time to cut his second album, \u201cNot a Moment Too Soon,\u201d the singer insisted it be included, noting, \u201cI felt like this is either going to work in a huge way or it\u2019s going to ruin my career forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily, it worked,\u201d McGraw added. \u201cAnd I think that what kept me from being just sort of a novelty act with this sort of funky, weird song that made some noise was being able to come right behind it with \u2018Don\u2019t Take the Girl.\u2019 I\u2019ll forever believe that the combination of those two songs is what set my career in motion and gave me momentum that I probably couldn\u2019t have gotten any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim McGraw\u2019s music video for \u201cIndian Outlaw\u201d was released in 1994. Curb<\/p>\n
The song went on to become McGraw\u2019s first top 10 country hit and went platinum.<\/p>\n
McGraw touched on the controversy of \u201cIndian Outlaw,\u201d explaining, \u201cI understood why it was controversial, because it was stereotypical, and it was sort of a play on Native American stereotypes. And there was a lot of controversy around it, and I understood the controversy and I wasn\u2019t upset about the controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cIn fact, I met with several Native American leaders. Some liked the song, some didn\u2019t like the song. And my answer was, \u2018Look, I understand what your concerns are. The song\u2019s not meant to be that way, I understand your concerns. My opinion, if you need to go after me in order to raise attention and awareness, by all means, use my song for that. If you like it or don\u2019t like it, if you can make something good happen from it, then by all means, I\u2019m not going to be offended.’\u201d<\/p>\n
McGraw touched on the controversy of \u201cIndian Outlaw,\u201d explaining, \u201cI understood why it was controversial, because it was stereotypical, and it was sort of a play on Native American stereotypes.\u201d Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/p>\n
The singer said that when he plays at Native American casinos, he offers to take the song out of his set, but \u201c99 percent of the time, \u2018That\u2019s why we hired you, is to sing that song.\u2019 So they love it. So it\u2019s been really good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October 2025, the singer opened up about a rough patch in his career following a series of injuries, which left him wondering if he would ever perform again, adding he nearly quit his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had four back surgeries and double knee replacements, just in the last couple of years,\u201d he told the crowd at his concert in Highland, California at the time.<\/p>\n
He later added, \u201cAnd this spring, before I had my final back surgery, things were getting really bad, so I was seriously contemplating and figuring out how to walk away. I didn\u2019t want to, but I didn\u2019t think it was going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGraw later shared that he has since gotten better and that while he was recovering he wrote the song, \u201cKing Rodeo,\u201d which explores themes of aging and the struggles that come with it.<\/p>\n
Lyrics of the song include: \u201cHey, King Rodeo, You\u2019re lookin\u2019 lonely \/ Like you\u2019ve lost your one and only \/ Adoring crowds are not around you \/ Whispers and shadows, they surround you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim McGraw\u00a0is looking back at the most \u201ccontroversial\u201d song of his career. During a recent interview on \u201cThe…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":608107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,3988,171,975,18241,71705,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-608106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-country-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-singers","tag-tim-mcgraw","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116114310135851638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}