Brantley Gilbert is currently headlining his own Hell on Wheels tour, but he will soon switch roles and become an opening act. The Georgia native is joining Tim McGraw's Two Lanes of Freedom trek, and he couldn't be happier to take the back seat.

"Tim just called me and said, 'Hey, what are you doing? Are you in Nashville?'" Brantley recalls to The Boot. "He's just a simple guy. He reminds me of people back home. He's super cool. He's easy to talk to. It's a real cool thing. He's a hunting guy; he likes to hunt and shoot guns, so I think we're going to get along just fine."

The two men have a lot more in common than country music and their love of sports; they also share the decision to avoid drugs and alcohol. Brantley, who made the decision to get sober more than a year ago, says he is enjoying his new lease on life as the soon-to-be husband of actress and singer Jana Kramer.

"It was just time to do something different," he explains. "I felt like I could be more productive if I didn't [drink], and it wasn't something I really needed in my life. I don't need anything to have a good time or be a hell-raiser. I was born one. It had a lot to do with things that were going on around me. I wanted to make sure that if somebody special did come along, I was the kind of man that a woman like her would deserve. There were a lot of different reasons."

The singer says sobriety has been relatively easy so far. "I actually have a really good support system. People around me have been really cool."

Brantley's Hell on Wheels tour, which also features Kip Moore and Brian Davis, continues on Friday (Feb. 15), in Augusta, Ga. The Two Lanes of Freedom tour, which also includes Love and Theft, will kick off on May 2 in Birmingham, Ala. See a list of Brantley's upcoming shows here. The Georgia native will take a detour to Las Vegas in April for the ACM Awards, as he is up for New New Male Vocalist.

Watch Brantley Gilbert's 'More Than Miles' Video

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