David McGraw

Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana, the only child of Elizabeth "Betty" Ann D'Agostino, a waitress from Jacksonville, Florida, and Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr., a pitcher for the minor league Jacksonville Suns and future star pitcher for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1966, D'Agostino was a student at Terry Parker High School. She lived in the same apartment building as Tug McGraw, who was playing baseball for Jacksonville. When she became pregnant with McGraw as a teen, D'Agostino's parents sent her to Louisiana to live with relatives. Through his father, McGraw has two half-brothers, Mark and Matthew, and a half-sister named Cari. He also has two younger half-sisters, Tracey and Sandra, through his mother's marriage to Horace Smith.

McGraw grew up believing Smith was his father, and used this stepfather's surname until meeting Tug. At age 11, McGraw discovered his birth certificate while searching in his mother's closet whilst looking for money to buy sweets. Following the discovery, he learned from her who his biological father was and she took him to meet the elder McGraw for the first time. Tug McGraw denied the parentage for seven years until Tim was 18 years old. After that time, the two formed a relationship and remained close until the former baseball star died in 2004. …

In a 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, McGraw stated he would like to run for public office as a Democratic Party candidate, possibly for United States Senate or Governor of Tennessee—his home state. In the same interview, he praised Bill Clinton. In a 2008 interview with People magazine, McGraw referred to himself as a "Blue Dog Democrat" and stated that he and his family support Barack Obama. In January 2021, McGraw performed on the Celebrating America inaugural special, a primetime virtual concert celebrating the inauguration of Joe Biden.