Tim McGraw was up bright and early this morning (Feb. 28) to visit the set of Good Morning America and promote his new movie, The Shack, which opens nationwide on Friday, March 3.
The Louisiana native, whose acting credits included Friday Night Lights, The Blindside and Tomorrowland, co-stars in The Shack, which is based on the New York Times best-selling novel by William Paul Young.
Tim was also tapped, with the help of wife Faith Hill, Lori McKenna and Shane McAnally, to write a song—”Keep Your Eyes on Me”—for the movie’s soundtrack.
“I saw a really early version of the movie,” Tim told host Robin Roberts. “Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Faith and I watched the movie to try to figure out the song idea. So we were writing songs and writing ideas on notepads, in the middle of crying throughout the whole thing. At the end of the movie, we went in a room and we sort of sit down and discuss what we wanted to write and we all had the same note right at the top—‘keep your eyes on me’—because it was a line out of the film. We went back to our house about a week later and wrote the song, ‘Keep Your Eyes on Me.’ It’s the first time Faith and I had ever written a song we recorded.”
The Shack tells the story of Mack Phillips [Sam Worthington] whose daughter is thought to be kidnapped and murdered, which sends Mack into a deep depression. Mack later receives a mysterious letter from Papa—his wife’s nickname for God— which leads him to an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. At the shack, Mack encounters a trio of strangers led by Papa [Octavia Spencer], who helps him through this tragedy and changes his life.
Tim also talked about being on the road for his upcoming Soul2Soul Tour with Faith, which kicks off April 7 in New Orleans. “I just do what she says, man,” Tim says.
Watch Tim talk about his Grammy-winning hit, “Humble & Kind,” The Shack and Soul2Soul Tour.