'This has been really good.'
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's life in quarantine isn't all that different from how they normally spend their time. ET's Nischelle Turner spoke with McGraw via video chat, and the 53-year-old "I Called Mama" singer revealed that he and his wife are "sort of homebodies" to begin with.
"Faith and I spend 90 percent of our time together. We're sort of homebodies. We don't get out much and we always cook at home. We don't eat out much," he says. "We're always around the house, so we spend a lot of time together anyway. But this has been really good. We enjoy just cuddling up and watching movies, TV series."
Though things are mostly good in their household, McGraw did reveal the one thing he does that annoys his wife.
"I spent 30 years in hotel rooms going in and out, so I've never even thought about cleaning up, but she's a neat freak, so she likes everything pretty clean," he shares. "So I always get on her nerves about that."
In addition to quarantining with his wife, McGraw is also hunkered down with two of his kids, Maggie, 21, and Audrey, 18. Their eldest daughter, 23-year-old Gracie, is currently self-isolating in Los Angeles and keeping up with the family via frequent FaceTime calls.
"We're doing well. We're spending a lot of time with family together," he says. "We have gotten to spend some time cooking and hanging out and just enjoying each other's company."
In the kitchen, McGraw said he and Hill have been eating a lot of chicken and mashed potatoes, as well as returning to recipes from their childhood.
"I call my mama to get recipes now, stuff that I remember as a kid," he says. "I think there's been a lot of nostalgia during this, and that's the same thing with food. We wanted to cook stuff that we grew up with, stuff that we remember from our childhood."
As Mother's Day approaches, McGraw is honoring all the moms out there, including his own, with his new single, "I Called Mama."
"My mama is really important to me," he says. "I didn't want Faith to hear it until I learned it a little bit, so I tried to learn how to sing it. I listened to it for about 30 minutes and I told Faith I wanted her to hear this song, and I got to the hook... and I couldn't say it. I started to break apart, to fall apart trying to sing it, so that's how much that song affected me when I first heard it."
As for the meaning of the song, McGraw said there's "a bigger picture" to it than just keeping in touch with your mom.
"It's about anybody who you're connected with, anybody you love, anybody that's sort of an anchor to you, it's somebody that can stabilize you and make you feel a little bit more comfortable during the times that we're going through," he says. "I think that song speaks to that as much as anything."
McGraw said he and his daughters are planning to honor that connection in his own home by whipping up something special for Hill on Sunday.
"Audrey and I want to cook something for her. I think that's the goal that we want to do," he says. "I don't know what else I can give her. I'm running out of gift ideas, but I think [I'll be] cooking something and we'll see how that goes."
"Maybe watch her favorite show and hang out, do that kind of thing. Just spend the day together," McGraw continues. "Maybe I'll go out and hang out with her in her rose garden. She likes to go out to the rose garden and cut roses. She's always dragging me out there, so maybe I'll spend some time in the rose garden."
Though he wasn't sure what to gift Hill for the holiday, he had no shortage of kind words for the mother of three."She's a strong woman. She's a great role model for our daughters... the best role model any of them can have. She has a heart just as big as her voice," he says. "She loves everybody and she wants to do the best for everybody and she always wants everything to be perfect for everybody. She loves me unconditionally, which says a lot 'cause there's a lot of conditions of me."
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