Tim McGraw Makes A Change: Country Star Gives Up Partying

Tim McGraw recently decided to stop partying -- and he did so for a good reason.

In a new interview, the country star opened up about his alcohol-fueled past, and his decision to straighten up for his wife and their three children.

"When your wife tells you it's gone too far, that's a big wake-up call," McGraw revealed in the new issue of Men's Health, via PEOPLE Magazine. "That, and realizing you're gonna lose everything you have. Not monetarily, not career-wise, but family-wise. It got to the point where my kids were getting older, and it was way past the point that they noticed it. And I noticed that they noticed. That's enough to straighten you out."

After marrying fellow country star, Faith Hill, on Oct. 6, 1996, the pair became parents to three children, Gracie, 17, Maggie, 15, and Audrey, 12. However, his life at home wasn't enough to deter McGraw from drinking heavily. In fact, McGraw admitted to drinking and partying "too much." And he didn't stop there. McGraw also used chemicals.

Things got so out of hand with McGraw's partying that he began to see himself heading in the same direction as the late singer Keith Whitley, who died of alcohol poisoning in 1989.

"Keith Whitley taught me how demons can overtake you if you let 'em. And I was headed down that path," McGraw explained. "You feel like you're supposed to be 'on' all the time."

McGraw's need to be "on" eventually led him to drink before performing, which quickly became a habit, and up until seven years ago, McGraw said there "were not a lot of shows that I didn't have something in my system."