Plenty of fans were excited to see Tracy Lawrence at the 2015 Taste of Country Music Festival, but perhaps no one was as excited as Tim McGraw.

McGraw told Taste of Country that he purposely planned his pre-show workout so that he would be done in time to see Lawrence's late-afternoon set. The "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools" singer says that he "sang myself hoarse singing all those songs ... so many great songs" while watching from the side of the stage, but McGraw (still in his workout clothes) had enough voice left to join Lawrence out on stage for Lawrence's final song, "Find Out Who Your Friends Are."

"He's not only been one of my best friends in the business, [but] he and I used to run around together back in the early days before we had record deals and had a lot of fun together, played a lot of clubs," McGraw says of Lawrence. "I mean, I was one of the first people to see him sing when he came to town ..."

"He's one of the best country singers around," he declares.

In his own set, McGraw continued to show love to Lawrence, praising his show in between songs and even singing a few bars of "Sticks and Stones." McGraw also name-checked his buddy during "Down on the Farm;" he changed the line "Got old Hank cranking way up loud" to "Got Tracy Lawrence cranking way up loud."

Check Out Pics of Day 2 at the Taste of Country Music Festival

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