The Cowboy in Me

"The Cowboy in Me" is a song written by Jeffrey Steele, Al Anderson and Craig Wiseman, and performed by American country music artist Tim McGraw. It was released in November 2001 as the third single from McGraw's Set This Circus Down album. The song reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts.^[1] It reached Number One one week after McGraw's duet with Jo Dee Messina, "Bring On the Rain".

Content

In this song, Tim McGraw is acknowledging the destructive and sometimes selfish side of his personality, which he identifies as "the cowboy in [him]."

Background

One of the writers of the song, Al Anderson, told Songfacts.com he is proud of the song, even though it is not particularly personal to him: "I was just writing the song. Jeff Steele came in with the idea and he had some of it done already, and he and Craig Wiseman just finished it with him." he said. "So it has nothing to do with my life. I don't do that that much." Anderson then said he drew inspiration from the trucker radio stations that he listened to as a child when he wrote this song: "My mom used to let me go to sleep with the radio on and I could get WBBD when I was a kid, in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was a trucker station and it came in at night all over the country. So when I was 8, 9 years old, I was glued to that station at night. I fell asleep with it every night."^[2]

Critical reception

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a B grade, saying that the song "might be an amoebic form of the country lifestyle anthems that have flooded the genre in the years since it was released." He goes on to say that it is "certainly subtler and more refined than what’s come out since, and McGraw’s hit doesn’t include the head-pounding loudness that sinks so many other 'country' anthems."^[3]

Music video

The music video was directed by Sherman Halsey and was released in early 2002.

Chart performance

"The Cowboy in Me" debuted at number 48 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the chart week of December 1, 2001.

Chart (2001-2002)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)^[4]	1
US Billboard Hot 100^[5]	33

Year-end charts

Chart (2002)	Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)^[6]	21

References

↑ Whitburn, Joel (2008). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. ISBN 0-89820-177-2.
↑ "The Cowboy in Me by Tim McGraw Songfacts". Retrieved 2014-03-22.
↑ CountryUniverse.net Song review
↑ "Tim McGraw Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Tim McGraw.
↑ "Tim McGraw Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot 100 for Tim McGraw.
↑ "Best of 2002: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2002. Retrieved August 13, 2012.

Preceded by "Bring On the Rain" by Jo Dee Messina and Tim McGraw	Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number-one single March 16, 2002	Succeeded by "The Long Goodbye" by Brooks & Dunn

Tim McGraw singles

Discography

Tim McGraw	"Welcome to the Club" "Memory Lane" "Two Steppin' Mind"

Not a Moment Too Soon	"Indian Outlaw" "Don't Take the Girl" "Down on the Farm" "Not a Moment Too Soon" "Refried Dreams"

All I Want	"I Like It, I Love It" "Can't Be Really Gone" "All I Want Is a Life" "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart" "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It"

Everywhere	"It's Your Love" (with Faith Hill) "Everywhere" "Just to See You Smile" "One of These Days" "Where the Green Grass Grows" "For a Little While"

A Place in the Sun	"Please Remember Me" "Something Like That" "My Best Friend" "Some Things Never Change" "My Next Thirty Years"

Set This Circus Down	"Grown Men Don't Cry" "Angry All the Time" "The Cowboy in Me" "Unbroken"

Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors	"Red Rag Top" "Tiny Dancer" "She's My Kind of Rain" "Real Good Man" "Watch the Wind Blow By"

Live Like You Were Dying	"Live Like You Were Dying" "Back When" "Drugs or Jesus" "Do You Want Fries with That" "My Old Friend"

Reflected: Greatest Hits Vol. 2	"When the Stars Go Blue" "My Little Girl"

Let It Go	"Last Dollar (Fly Away)" "I Need You" (with Faith Hill) "If You're Reading This" "Suspicions" "Kristofferson" "Let It Go" "Nothin' to Die For"

Southern Voice	"It's a Business Doing Pleasure with You" "Southern Voice" "Still"

Number One Hits	"Felt Good on My Lips"

Country Strong soundtrack	"Me and Tennessee" (with Gwyneth Paltrow)

Emotional Traffic	"Better Than I Used to Be" "Right Back Atcha Babe"

Two Lanes of Freedom	"Truck Yeah" "One of Those Nights" "Highway Don't Care" (with Taylor Swift) "Southern Girl"

Tim McGraw & Friends	"Twisted" (with Colt Ford)

Sundown Heaven Town	"Lookin' for That Girl" "Meanwhile Back at Mama's" (with Faith Hill) "Shotgun Rider" "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools" (with Catherine Dunn)

Guest singles	"Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me" (with Faith Hill) "Let's Make Love" (with Faith Hill) "Bring On the Rain" (with Jo Dee Messina) "Over and Over" (with Nelly) "Like We Never Loved at All" (with Faith Hill) "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" (with Tracy Lawrence and Kenny Chesney) "Nine Lives" (with Def Leppard) "Feel Like a Rock Star" (with Kenny Chesney)