"Live Like You Were Dying" is a song recorded by American country music singer Tim McGraw, and was the lead single from his eighth album of the same name (2004).

It has sold over two million copies in the U.S. "Live Like You Were Dying" tells the story of a man in his early forties who gets the news that he has an unspecified, life-threatening illness (most likely cancer of some variety).

The message is to live life to the fullest and do things that he had always wanted to do, such as skydiving, mountain climbing, fishing, and bull riding.

He talks about how going fishing with his father stopped being an imposition and how he finally, after reading the Bible, took a long hard look at his life and past, giving new consideration to what he might have done differently had he had this perceptive earlier.

[4] "I remember going in my totally dark living room, laying on the floor, and we wrote the second verse on the phone," Wiseman recalled.

The inclusion of the lyric about riding a bull was intended as a sort of "palette cleanse," as they felt the chorus was growing too sentimental.

"[2] The song was demoed within a few days of its writing by Wiseman, and was chosen by McGraw to be his next lead single.

[3] Wiseman remembered the song had personal significance for McGraw, who commented that he himself had gone fishing with his father prior to a quadruple bypass surgery.