"Shame on me," the singer-songwriter joked at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony
Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty; The WB/Nigel Perry
NEED TO KNOW
- Gavin DeGraw has revealed that he’s never watched One Tree Hill
- DeGraw’s 2003 hit “I Don’t Want to Be” served as the show’s theme beginning with its first season
- “I’ve never seen the show physically, so I don’t watch TV,” he tells PEOPLE
Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want to Be" soundtracked One Tree Hill for years, but that doesn't mean he's seen the show.
The singer-songwriter, 49, revealed to PEOPLE at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame Annual Induction and Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 11 that he has never watched One Tree Hill, despite being responsible for the series' memorable theme song. When asked if he was "team Nathan or team Lucas" during the event in New York City, DeGraw broke the news.
"You can't ask me questions like this," he says. "I've never seen the show physically, so I don't watch TV. Shame, shame on me."
Credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty
It's nothing personal against One Tree Hill, which aired between 2003 and 2012. DeGraw just doesn't watch TV at all, he says. "I have a TV," DeGraw adds. "It's more like a nightlight, you know? Just, uh, not a TV watcher… [I haven't watched TV since] 1998. I read a lot of owner's manuals. I'm an owner's manual kind of guy."
Still, he explained that "I Don't Want to Be" changed his life, his "world" and his "income" bracket. "I think the biggest impact, other than just for me, is seeing how it's helped other people with their own identities," he says.
He adds, "When people say, 'Oh, well, this song really helped me. I was 15, such and such. I was battling this and that,' or they got bullied or they didn't know what they wanted to do with their life or whatever it may be… When I hear stories like that, it means something to me. It's very cool."
DeGraw shared a similar sentiment with E! on Thursday, telling the outlet that he loved "the people on the show" but just didn't tune in. “I hear the show is amazing,” he said. “It’s been great to me—and the fans have been amazing to me. Yeah, but I don’t watch TV. Isn’t that weird?”
He previously caught up with PEOPLE in 2024 about marking the 20th anniversary of his breakout LP, Chariot, which featured "I Don't Want to Be." As he explained at the time, he was celebrating with re-recorded songs and music from the vault, which he said felt "authentic."
“The songs and my performances developed over time just from playing them another 20,000 times live,” DeGraw said of two decades on the road. “You’re finding things that you didn’t do before that you really like. You've been living in these songs and you think of fresh ideas to bring to these old songs.”
At Thursday's ceremony, DeGraw presented and performed alongside honoree Kenny Loggins. Also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame 2026 class were Walter Afanasieff, Taylor Swift, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS, Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart.
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