Tim McGraw's Swampstock 2003 Most successful Ever
Falls Ill During Performance

Nashville – (Sept. 15, 2003) – Tim McGraw's annual hometown benefit,
Swampstock 2003, which takes place in Rayville, Louisiana,
experienced its largest tickets sale to date with a crowd estimate
nearing 20,000. Unfortunately, four songs into McGraw's concert set,
he fell ill and had to leave the stage. A local physician diagnosed a
case of sever dehydration. McGraw did perform these four
songs: "Comfort Me," "Something Like That," "She's My Kind of Rain,"
and "For A Littlie While."

"I have never experienced anything like this before and I hope
everyone knows how sorry I am. No one is more disappointed than me. I
look forward to this event all year long. Thank you for supporting it
for nine years, and for making this the most successful fundraiser
yet. And I have to give a special thanks to all the other performers
for stepping up," said McGraw later last night.

McGraw, who had been fighting a virus for several days, had played
softball earlier in the day, a regular part of the all-day event,
which begins with a celebrity game followed by a nighttime concert in
an adjacent field. For the past nine years, McGraw has returned to
his hometown to raise money for local scholarships and local youth
sports. This benefit helped to build the very ball field in which the
event takes place – the Tim McGraw Sports Complex.

As McGraw departed the stage, his band the Dancehall Doctors played a
tune for the crowd, followed by Faith Hill, who performed several of
her own hits songs with the band. Hill explained to the crowd about
her husband's illness and that things like this sometimes happen, and
how she hoped they would understand. Before she finished her last
song, Buddy Jewell was waiting to take the stage. Chris Cagle and the
Warren Brothers followed him. Each of these three acts had previously
finished their opening sets for the sea of fans before McGraw fell
ill. The concert concluded thereafter.



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