Tim McGraw Performs ‘I Called Mama’ on ‘Late Night’

Tim McGraw is making the late show rounds, performing new single “I Called Mama” on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Thursday. Clad in a black polo shirt, a black baseball cap and a pair of earbuds, McGraw sat in a high-backed chair and sang as members of his band were shown in separate video screens. “Thanks Seth,” he said at the end of the performance. “You guys take care.”

In his introduction of McGraw, host Seth Meyers pointed out that “I Called Mama” is McGraw’s highest-ever radio chart debut. It was also the week’s most-added song when it was released last month, earning ads at 147 Mediabase-monitored stations. McGraw has performed the song on a number of late-night shows as well as television specials including this week’s CMT Celebrates Our Heroes: An Artists of the Year Special.

“After I recorded it and we got it mixed, the virus came along and everybody was talking about it, and everybody went into isolation,” McGraw recently told Hoda Kotb on Today of the song, which was written by Lance Miller, Marv Green and Jimmy Yeary and features a narrator who calls his mom after hearing some sad news about an old friend. “So it really took on a bigger meaning and a deeper meaning to us, and that’s why we released it.”

“It just happened to be around Mother’s Day, but the main reason was because it just felt like, you know, what I’ve been doing — everybody’s been doing it — sitting around having comfort food all the time,” the Louisiana native added of the song’s May 8 release. “This song felt like comfort food for your soul in a lot of ways.” “I Called Mama” is the first single from McGraw’s upcoming album, which is reportedly titled Here on Earth and will be released in September.

“On the one hand this song is literally, ‘Hey, call your mom,’” McGraw previously said in a statement. “On the other hand, you look at a time like this, there are real hardships for everyone, and it’s a great reminder that hearing someone’s voice who knows you and loves you can help you get through anything. I think it’s at these very difficult times that music can help and the power of a song can give someone a moment of clarity or comfort, or just a smile. Especially now, when we seem to need it more than ever.”