TIM & FAITH GO WEST
Country music couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on starring in the prequel to TV’s Yellowstone and keeping the spice in their marriage.
The phrase “pillow talk” takes on new meaning when you and your spouse have just spent the day outside in blustery Montana dressed in 19th-century garb filming a highly dramatic scene for one of this year’s most anticipated TVseries.
“We were in bed last night and talked [about the scene] for two hours,” Tim McGraw says. “I told Faith, ‘This is incredible. How many married couples ever get a chance to do what we’re doing right now?’”
Chalk it up to another milestone for McGraw and Faith Hill, the married country music power duo of 25 years and parents of three daughters.
They’ve amassed eight Grammys (five for her; three for him), 14 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards and have matching stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now they’re starring in the sprawling new Western series 1883 (premiering Dec. 19 on Paramount+). A prequel to the Emmy-nominated saga Yellowstone, it centers on McGraw and Hill’s characters, James and Margaret Dutton—the ancestors of Kevin Costner’s present-day patriarchal rancher baron, John—as they make their way westward ho across the Great Plains via wagons in search of land and freedom. (Sam Elliott, Isabel May and Billy Bob Thornton round out the ensemble.) “The entire storytelling process is so authentic,” says Hill. “It feels like we’re living that life and actually in 1883.”
On this evening in November 2021, Hill and McGraw, both 54, are Zooming in separately from different locations: She’s in her trailer with dirt still caked on her face and fake blood under her fingernails; he’s eagerly waiting her return in the nearby cast lodge. It’s been another long rewarding day. “When I watch him, I’m in awe,” she says. He raves of Hill, “We were face to face and staring into each other’s eyes, and I walked away going, ‘Damn, my wife is good.’”
WELCOME TO THE RANCH
Centering on the Dutton family’s fight for control of their expansive ranch, Yellowstone had been on McGraw’s radar from its very first episode. “I liked that it was a mix of Game of Thrones and The Godfather,” he says.
So when the pair received writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s pilot script, they realized it was an offer they couldn’t refuse. “We were like, ‘We have to go on this adventure together,’ ” McGraw says. Hill draws on a musical analogy: “It begins with a song. If the song is right, then you don’t give it a second thought, because writing is a real craft that should be respected. We read the material and we were like, ‘How can we not do it?’”
Hill and McGraw uprooted from their home in Nashville in August to begin production. Though living side by side in Texas and Montana, they don’t run lines or ride to the set together. “We want to see what the other brings to the scene in the moment, so it’s always a surprise,” Hill says.
Filming 10 hour-long episodes, on location, in wintry conditions has been challenging. Hill says cast members blow on their hands to keep warm with “snot running down our noses.” Adds McGraw, “You really begin to realize that people sacrificed everything on these wagon trains. Human nature is revealed.”
The couple was even on the clock on Oct. 6—their 25th wedding anniversary—on location in Texas. They would not have had it any other way: “What more could you ask for? We’re working together on our 25th anniversary on an incredible show with great people,” Hill says. Besides, their daughters, Grace, 24, Maggie, 23, and Audrey, 20, flew in to celebrate.
MARRIAGE IN THE STARS
Although Hill and McGraw don’t make a habit of overthinking their relationship—“We love one another and that’s just part of our life,” Hill says—they did know early on that they were destined to be together. Both are products of blue-collar families in the Deep South—or, as Hill puts it, “We have very, very, very similar humble beginnings.” Hill, born Audrey Faith Perry, was adopted as an infant and grew up in Star, Miss.; McGraw is a Louisiana native and was raised by his waitress mom, Elizabeth, and his truck-driver stepdad, Horace. (At 11, he learned his biological father was Major League Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw.)
McGraw never fathomed he could make a career out of his voice until he got to college at Northeast Louisiana University and started playing guitar— which he bought for $25. “I learned 50 songs and it worked really well with the girls,” he jokes. He dropped out a few years later and was signed by a Nashville label in 1990 at age 23. (McGraw toted that same beloved guitar to Montana to work on his next album.)
A few years earlier, 19-year-old Hill arrived in Nashville. She took orders at McDonald’s, became a secretary at a music publishing company and eventually sang backup for songwriter Gary Burr when he performed at Nashville’s Blue
bird Cafe. She released her first album, Take Me as I Am, in 1993.
McGraw and Hill fell in love in 1996 during a tour. She accepted his marriage proposal at a music festival in Colorado. But before they wed, they had The Talk. “We discussed the odds of two people in the same industry doing the same exact thing for a living,” says Hill. “Even with our exploding careers, having a family was our number one priority. And we established how we could make it work.”
McGraw marvels at his wife’s family-first mentality: “When she won three Grammys in one night I was really proud of her. But I’m most proud of her as a mom because that’s where her heart is and where she spends her energy.”
ALL IS BRIGHT
The couple isn’t too busy to routinely count their blessings. They are quick to brag about their daughters. “They’re very independent and strong-minded young women,” McGraw says. Referencing his 2016 hit “Humble and Kind,” McGraw shares that his daughters have helped him: “I can fail at being humble sometimes, but then I look to them, and I look forward. They’re like a beacon.”
And they are thankful for each other. “To do this series together is really special. I can’t imagine doing it without my wife,” McGraw says. Hill adds, “I know no matter what happens, I’m his biggest cheerleader and he’s mine.”
Go to Parade.com/1883 to find out how the Hill-McGraw family celebrates Christmas.