Tim McGraw Recalls Drunk Texts That Helped Him Quit Drinking

Tim McGraw stopped drinking in early 2008, and he admits that the drunken text messages he was sending to his wife Faith Hill back then may have actually helped him quit. At the time, he thought that texting (rather than calling) Hill would cover up his drinking, but he was wrong.

"I only learned how to text because back when I was drinking, I would get in trouble when I called my wife -- she'd find out I was drinking," McGraw tells On the Red Carpet. "Then I started slurring my texts and I figured, 'Hell, I've got to quit drinking. That's the only thing that's going to work.' And Skype, thank God, nobody knew anything about Skype back then. I’d have never stayed out of trouble."

In a 2009 issue of PEOPLE, McGraw is reported as saying, "Faith has kept me alive. She's saved my life in a lot of different ways -- from myself more than anything. She's loved me through times when I didn't love me. I don't drink anymore. I'm not a moderate person, and I'll be the first to say there have been times when things were taken to the extreme. It's time to grow up a bit. Plus, I got really fat."

The ‘Felt Good on My Lips’ singer also reveals to the Wall Street Journal that "when I first started [my career], I was really nervous. You could hear my voice quiver. So I started drinking a bit and that helped. A lot of entertainers have a few drinks before going onstage and don't overdo it. Me, it turned into a bigger habit. But I stopped that. I was getting older, and I was thinking about my kids. There's enough roadblocks out there without throwing in more yourself.”

McGraw’s current movie, 'Country Strong,' opened in theaters nationwide this weekend, and his single 'Felt Good on My Lips' has held steady at the top of Billboard's country charts.