Tim McGraw reflects on Glen Campbell song

Tim McGraw hopes that somehow the song he performed at Sunday's Oscars reached the man it was meant to honor, Glen Campbell.

McGraw sang an emotional, stripped-down version of Campbell's Oscar-nominated song I'm Not Gonna Miss You. The song deals with Campbell's struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Campbell's condition forced him to stay in a Nashville facility and not attend the Los Angeles show.

"I hope that even for a second that (Campbell) was able to understand what he's done," McGraw said, speaking by phone after arriving at his Nashville home Wednesday. "I hope he saw how well his song has done and how it has touched people."

Campbell's wife, Kimberly, and his grown children were at the Oscar performance. McGraw ran into Kimberly Campbell on the red carpet and expressed his appreciation for the family's struggle, as depicted in the farewell tour documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me.

"What they are doing and how they went forward with Glen's disease and made it public and shine a light on it — it's so brave. We talked about that," says McGraw. "And I said that it's an honor for me to represent the family. I told them that. To represent Glen, his legacy and what he's done."

McGraw says he stayed calm before the performance by turning off the Oscar program taking place just yards away while in his dressing room during the show. The performance had McGraw without a guitar sitting at the stage edge, starting the song without accompaniment.

"I realized I did everything I could to be as exposed as possible. I was on a high wire without a net," says McGraw. "I could not have done anything more to make myself as naked as possible in front of all these people. I put myself in a position where I had to be dead-on perfect."

By all accounts, he was.

The performance was also unusual for McGraw because it was not in front of his legion of fans. Along with wife Faith Hill, the audience was composed of Hollywood's biggest stars. McGraw admits he focused on the kind face of Emma Stone's mother during parts.

"That gave me some relief or comfort," says McGraw, before laughing. "I certainly wasn't going to look around and find Meryl Streep. Then I'd certainly lose my (stuff) then."

Most of all, McGraw enjoyed being in the moment for a song he says flew by. The rousing applause was appropriate for the song, for Campbell and for the spotlight it put on Alzheimer's.

"This is Glen Campbell's most heroic legacy, the best legacy he could ever leave the world," says McGraw. "How he's put a spotlight on Alzeimer's. It took a lot of guts to do that."

McGraw says a beautiful reward came to him when he and Hill arrived home. Their three grown daughters paid their own tribute to McGraw's performance, which they had watched from home.

"I walked into the house this morning," says McGraw. "There was a big sign all our kids had made for me that said 'Good Job Dad.' That was pretty nice to walk home to."