Playlist: Live Like You Were Dying

"He said I was in my early 40's,
With a lot of life before me,
And a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days, lookin' at the x-rays,
Talkin' 'bout the options and talkin' 'bout sweet time."
(Live Like You Were Dying / C. Wiseman, T. Nichols)

In August of 2004 Tim McGraw released his 8th studio album, titled  "Live Like You Were Dying". The title cut had a special meaning to the singer, since his father Tug McGraw passed away from a brain tumor at the beginning of 2004.

The song was written by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman, after a mutual friend had received a diagnosis for lung cancer. Subsequently it proved to be false, fortunately. However both songwriters started to contemplate, what changes in life and in perspective of it such a false diagnosis would trigger in a person. Most everyone cannot grasp the consequences unless actually being in such a situation.

"Asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end.
How's it hit ya, when you get that kind of news.
Man what ya do?"
 

Having written the first verse, the song would grab them and they kept at it.  Craig Wiseman remebers, that it was late at night and he was lying on the floor of his dark living room, writing the second verse over the phone with Tim Nichols. There they added the line about the bull riding, to give the song something uplifting and not let it get lost too much in soppiness.

"And he said, I went sky divin',
I went rocky mountain climbin',
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fumanchu."

Having heard the demo tape of the finished song, Tim Mc Graw decided almost immediately to not only cut the song, but also make it the title of his new album. A decision that proved to be more than worthwhile.

'Live Like You Were Dying' became the biggest hit of 2004. It held the top position of the Billboard Hot Country Song Charts for 7 weeks, climbed to 29 on the Billboard Hot-100 Pop Charts and collected most of the awards handed out that year, including the Academy of Country Music (ACM) award for Video of the Year. 'Live Like You Were Dying' has sold over 2 Mio. units until today. An undenieable proof for the appreciation people held for the song and its message.

"And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I've been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin"

The song touched people so much, that the two songwriters compiled a small booklet, which held various citations, poems and pictures in the theme of the song. And for the christian author Michael Morris the song was motivator to write a novel by the same name, for which Tim McGraw contrinbuted the forword.

"I hope this song can motivate us all, to take a deep breath and become aware of all the good things in our life - from the samllest to the biggest dreams," Tim McGraw adds.

I myself was fortunate enough to have the chance and attend a Tim McGraw show on his 2004 'Live Like You Were Dying'-Tour in the Pyramide in Memphis, TN. And I still remember the moments when the chorus for the song came on and the whole arena got bathed in white light. It simply still is one of the greatest and most encouraging songs ever written.

"He said I was finally the husband,
That most the time I wasn't.
And I became a friend a friend would like to have.
And all the sudden goin' fishing,
Wasn't such an imposition.
And I went three times that year I lost my dad."