Ne-Yo goes country with Tim McGraw

R&B star NE-YO went a little bit country on Wednesday (31Oct12) when he joined his pal TIM McGRAW onstage in Nashville, Tennessee for a surprise performance.

The So Sick hitmaker and McGraw teamed up at a private party on the eve of the Country Music Association Awards to belt out the music veteran's track Only Human and their new tune She Is from Ne-Yo's new album, R.E.D.

Ne-Yo admits he feels at home in the country music mecca, confessing, "For me, I feel like, in another life, I might've been a country artist", and he reveals his friendship with McGraw and his wife Faith Hill goes way back - he teamed up with the country star for a joint songwriting session several years ago and was treated to some real Southern hospitality.

He tells the Associated Press, "Faith Hill actually made me fried chicken. She cooked fried chicken for me and it was fantastic. I knew I was coming out here (Nashville) to write, so I was expecting to go to, like, a studio and hear some skeletal track and then just go from there.

"I went to Tim and Faith's house. It was me, Tim and a guy with a guitar in the living room as the kids ran around, and it was the greatest writing experience I've ever had in my life."