Tim McGraw Talks Beyoncé & Jay-Z, Auto-Tune, New Music: 'I've Still Got A Long Way To Go'

Tim McGraw is too big to fail.

With his first No. 1 song "Not A Moment Too Soon" two decades in his rear-view, he currently has a streak of five straight No. 1 albums and is hoping to make Sundown Heaven Town (out Sept. 16) number six.

He's already off to a good start — the single "Meanwhile Back at Mama's" is currently holding down the No. 11 spot on the country chart — and recently sat down with Billboard to discuss a myriad of topics.

Most notable was a question about Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Why don't McGraw and wife Faith Hill live it up like America's most famous power couple?

"We don't really pay that much attention to it," McGraw said. "We just sort of move on with our life and put the blinders on when you get stuff like that. We wake up every morning, take our kids to school, get involved with all they're doing. It just doesn't even come across our radar."

But McGraw is not the boring old dude he tries to come across as. One of the new album's songs — "Looking For That Girl" — shocked fans with its use of Auto-Tune.

"I just like the freshness of it," he said. "It was something different for me, and as an artist you don't want to be predictable. It's important to push yourself. When I open my mouth, it's going to come out country no matter how pop- or progressive- or modern-­sounding the tracks are. But I don't think you have to come with a record that you know is a guaranteed, right-down-the-middle country radio song, or any radio song for that matter."

He also touched on his current run on the charts, and said he still has a lot of work to do.

"Some days it feels like I've been doing it forever and some days it feels like I'm just scratching the surface," he said. "I'm at that point in my career where there's confidence in what I do, but I also feel like I've still got so far to go and so much to learn. That's the perfect combination."

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Tim McGraw