Beyond studying the Civil War and exhibiting oral proficiency in Italian, one LSU student spent this year scribbling his name on more than just the back of desks.
Timothy Wayne, an up-and-coming country music artist, followed in the footsteps of his uncle, country music legend Tim McGraw, and signed his first major record deal with UMG and Capitol Records.
"I always wanted to do it," Wayne told Fox News Digital. "I loved being on stage. I never got stage fright, loved being on stage. I just never thought I could, and then once I actually had people tell me that I could, and they believed in me, I had to start believing in myself."
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"It’s kind of like time slowed down while I was signing," he added.
Wayne, 21, has released two original songs, "God Made a Country Boy" and "Guy With a Guitar" and was invited to perform on the Louisiana state float at the Rose Bowl Parade Jan. 1, 2025, by the lieutenant governor of Louisiana.
"I thought somebody was playing a joke on me," Wayne said of being asked to perform. "I didn’t know much about the Rose Bowl beforehand, but I knew that Lainey Wilson had done it previously."
Despite having a lifelong passion for music with inspiration from Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson and, thanks to his Italian grandmother’s influence, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, Wayne only started to truly focus on music several months ago.
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"For me, to be invited when I'd just really started making waves, it was awesome," he said. "For them to ask me to represent my mom, and my uncle, and my aunt's home state, and the state that I love, and I go to school in was surreal."
Programmed to create his own mastery of music, Wayne is produced by McGraw and his and Faith Hill’s producer, Byron Gallimore, but he writes his own music, coordinates with bandmates himself and tells his own story through vocals.
"He's the biggest supporter of this whole idea," Wayne told Fox News Digital of McGraw. "When I first really started getting into music later in high school, he told me, he said, ‘I'll produce you, but that's it. You have to forge your own path.’"
"I love being his nephew," Wayne said. "I always make a joke that he works for me. I was like, ‘Tim McGraw is my employee.’"
As for his management, Wayne credits his mom and McGraw’s sister, Sandy Howard, for taking on the brunt of the workload.
"My mom takes a lot of the stress off my back," he said. "She makes everything go smoothly up to the show and after the show."
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He added that she, along with his father, imparted '80s hairband rock ‘n’ roll like Kiss and Poison into his preferred genre of music and helped him identify the sound he loves.
"I’m a huge rock ‘n’ roll fan," Wayne said. "Country music is first and foremost storytelling, but I like to add that extra oomph when it's not a love story."
Wayne put his talents on display at McGraw’s "Standing Room Only" tour earlier this year when he jumped on the bus ride to three shows.
"Touring was not long enough," he said.
Wayne isn’t done joining country music stars on stage. He was invited to tour with Lee Brice in 2025.
"When I got the call that I was going to be invited to come and do his ‘You, Me and My Guitar’ show in Mississippi in February, I was over the moon."
