The 4th Annual Horizon Awards

(Below is a transcription of the speech given by Jeff McMahon at the 4th Annual Horizon Awards held November 5, 2004. The Tug McGraw Foundation was selected as the official philanthropic partner for the celebrated event. McMahon is the keyboardist for Tim McGraw’s band, the Dancehall Doctors, a friend to Tug McGraw, and an advocate for the Tug McGraw Foundation.)

Michael Blair: Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am standing out in the crowd and I’m about to introduce to you a very special celebrity. (Why don’t you go ahead and stand up?) Earlier tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you saw a video concerning the Tug McGraw Foundation. And on that video you heard the #1 hit single, “Live Like You Were Dying,” as recorded by Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors.

With us tonight is a very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the keyboardist and vocalist from the Dancehall Doctors…he has a special attachment to Tim McGraw and that song…big round of applause for Mr. Jeff McMahon.

Now Jeff, share with everyone here at the Horizon Awards what that special attachment is to the song and with Tim.

McMahon: Well, as far as Tim is concerned, I started working with Tim in 1993, which was the same time I met Tug. I knew Tug for these last twelve years. And if any of you are familiar with our music at all, you already know that Tim has had a lot of big hit records with “Don’t Take The Girl” and “Indian Outlaw,” “I Like It, I Love It,” and “It’s Your Love” with Faith.

But this song really kind of took on a life of its own over the course of this last year. When we recorded it, Tug was already really sick, and once we started performing it, while the message of the song meant something different to everybody in the audience, everybody in the audience also knew what it meant to Tim, and what it meant to Tug, and to all of us that knew him. Up until our last show of this tour, about a week ago, every show we played…there were signs, you know, end-to-end of baseball jerseys with number “45” and “You Gotta Believe” posters, Phillies jerseys and Mets jerseys and everybody wanting to share what Tug meant to them…and what the song meant.

“Live Like You Were Dying.” You know, if you watch that video, you saw that that’s what Tug did…and that was important to him…and that’s how he lived his last months. And we can’t play that song without remembering that. You know, most of you may not know this, but “Live Like You Were Dying” broke a 30-year record for being #1 on the charts for ten weeks. And I don’t think it’s because the song was fun, or cute, or sweet. It’s because the song was important, and everybody got something else from it. And what he wanted us to get from it was that that is what we need to do. Live like you were dying.

Which is why, six months after he was given three weeks to live, he decided to start the Tug McGraw Foundation, and we really appreciate the opportunity to share that with all of you here tonight and we appreciate all of your help. It was really important to Tug to help improve the quality of life for people that were confronted with the same obstacles he was, and that’s why he started to do this.

So with the help of Laurie and Jennifer, Henry who spoke earlier, and Kevin and Rena Millwood, we’ve really had a great kickoff…and this is a big part of it.

If you look at your tables, I don’t know if they’ve mentioned this or not, but…we’ve all got our Lance Armstrongs…but we’ve also got two arms. So, on your tables you’ve got the Tug McGraw bracelet - the “Ya Gotta Believe” bracelet. So you’ve got them on your tables, courtesy of Tim McGraw. He wanted everybody to make sure and have ‘em. And I’m tellin’ ya, if you don’t have it on, he will chase you down and put it on you! I’m on the road with him; he’s done it to all of us.

So wear ‘em proudly and help us remember and again, thanks for supporting all of this. It really means a lot to all of us…and thanks for remembering Tug tonight. It means the world.

Michael Blair: Thank you Jeff and the Tug McGraw Foundation. Thank you very much for being here tonight. [close window]