Every country fan knows Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as an iconic power couple. Going on 26 years of marriage, the hit-making artists are living life as empty-nesters now that their three adult daughters — ages 25, 23 and 20 — have moved out of their home.

“The best thing about it is, you know, Faith said the other night…we had the fireplace going, we had the doors open, we were having a glass of wine…Faith said, ‘You know, it’s like we’re the kids and the parents are gone,’” McGraw said. The “7500 OBO” singer appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, reflecting on his relationship with Hill, beginning with the moment he proposed to co-starring in 1883. McGraw recalled his proposal story:

“I want to say it was Montana, it was somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We had this big festival, and we had been touring together for a little while. Apropos for a country music concert, we had trailer houses, were our dressing rooms. We were doing this big festival, and we were in this big trailer house. And I had, like, my mirror and my road case and everything set up, and I asked Faith, I said, ‘Look,’ this was right before I went on stage. I said, ‘You know, I want you to be my wife.’ She goes, ‘Well, you’ve asked me that several times.’ I go, ‘This time I’m serious.’ …She goes, ‘You’re asking me to marry you at a country music festival in a trailer park.’ And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am, I am.’ You’re from Mississippi, I’m from Louisiana, it seems pretty appropriate. And then when I came back offstage, she had written in lipstick, ‘Yes, I’m gonna be your wife.’ And I still have that mirror. I still have the mirror.”

Now, McGraw and Hill teamed up in their first onscreen roles together (aside from music videos, McGraw noted) in 1883. The Paramount+ show serves as the prequel series to Yellowstone, following “the Dutton family on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of uncolonised America.”

McGraw said he and Hill spoke about how they’d approach playing James and Margaret Dutton in a way that’s so spot-on, fans won’t see them as “Tim McGraw” and “Faith Hill” onscreen. “The only way to do it is just try to be good at it,” they agreed. But McGraw revealed which scene was almost too good:

“However, there was a scene that we did where she had to slap me. …that was a real slap…. We talked about it before. You know, we don’t want to do a TV slap. We want to do a real slap, but after about the eighth take… I was concussed a bit. And I told her afterward, I said, ‘Do we need to talk? Is there something going on I don’t know about?’ I was expecting like a good, you know, finger slap. No, it was a palm. It was like Rocky hitting me.”

McGraw chuckled over the slap on the show, and said he was in awe of his wife’s performance: “She blew me away every single day. …(Hill) elevated my game every day.”

Now, McGraw is focused on his next album and his 2022 headlining tour with Russell Dickerson, Alexandra Kay and Brandon Davis joining him on the road. It marks his first tour since his “Soul2Soul” tour with Hill. Watch his full interview clip here:

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Jeremy Newman