Tim McGraw has reflected on how he initially felt “apprehensive” upon learning that Taylor Swift had named her debut single after him.

Released back in June 2006, ‘Tim McGraw’ saw the popular country musician being namechecked by Swift during the song’s chorus.

Speaking to Apple Music in a new interview, McGraw admitted to being “a little apprehensive” about Swift’s song when he first listened to it.

“Then I thought: ‘Have I gotten to that age now to where they’re singing songs about me? Does that mean I’ve jumped the shark a bit? Is everything still cool?’”

“Then I realised that somebody had told me that [Swift] was in her 7th grade math class when she wrote the song, so it made me feel a little bit better about that because she was so young writing it,” he continued.

“So I didn’t feel like I was that terribly old!”

McGraw later collaborated with Swift on the track ‘Highway Don’t Care’, which also featured Keith Urban, in March 2013.

McGraw is among the performers who will play during Celebrating America later tonight (January 20), a TV special honouring Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration today.

Earlier this month Swift became the first artist to have the top-selling album of the year in the US on five separate occasions since data tracking first began in 1992.