Some artists, like ALAN JACKSON and TAYLOR SWIFT, are terrific songwriters. And then there's TIM MCGRAW, who isn't . . . which explains why he prefers to record stuff written by other people.
Tim discovered how bad a writer he could be during his first few years in Nashville. He tells "American Songwriter", quote, "Those first two or three years, I had written a couple hundred songs with writers all over town. They're floating around out there somewhere. A couple may be good but most of them were awful."
In other Tim McGraw news: According to the "Las Vegas Sun", Tim and his wife FAITH HILL are close to signing a deal to do a run of weekend concerts in a small, 1,800-seat theater in Las Vegas.
The run will supposedly go from November to April . . . after Tim finishes his summer tour with KENNY CHESNEY.
There's no word on the venue, but it's supposed to be super close to Steve Wynn's Encore Theater where GARTH BROOKS has been doing his weekend shows for the past few years.
This happened a couple of weeks ago . . . but it's just coming out now. BILLY DEAN helped save the life of a Great Blue Heron that got tangled in an abandoned fishing line near Port St. Joe, Florida, about 30 miles south of Panama City.
Billy and his family saw a bunch of teenagers in the water fumbling with the bird . . . so he jumped in and helped unravel the line. Billy said, quote, "I was fortunate to have been there to help them untangle the bird and bring it to shore."
Great Blue Heron's are a protected species so Billy and his wife called a local wildlife group . . . and they took it from there.
CARRIE UNDERWOOD is watching hockey-playing husband Mike Fisher's beard get denser as his Nashville Predators compete in the second round of the playoffs.
She doesn't love it, but she says, "I get it. I respect the beard." It could get longer, though.
Before they met, Mike's team made it to the Stanley Cup and Carrie says he looked like a "mountain man."
