Tim McGraw: Drinking Days Are Long Over

Tim McGraw had women cranking up their air conditioners last summer when he tweeted a shirtless picture of himself, revealing six-pack abs and ripped arms. While the singer has always been fit, he's been a lot healthier in the past five years, putting down the bottle and picking up the weights.

"I drank a lot, and I needed to stop," the 45-year-old country superstar tells PEOPLE magazine. "I felt quitting was something I needed to do. I didn't feel I had any moral high ground with my kids in the long run."

Staying active as often as he can, the dad of three daughters is often found playing basketball with his band and crew before his live shows. "Working out is a great way to go out on stage," says the "One of Those Nights" singer. "When I hit the stage, my adrenaline is going and I'm ready."

Tim will hit the stage on his Two Lanes of Freedom tour this May, in support of his album of the same name. The new music, which hits stores Feb. 5, shows a renewed energy in the singer, who split from his longtime label last year after a heated legal battle.

"I feel, sonically, that there's a freshness to this record, that there's a drive behind it that is new to me," Tim tells The Boot. Two Lanes of Freedom has already spawned the huge, feel-good hits, "Truck Yeah" and "One of Those Nights."

The country crooner is currently in the middle of his Soul2Soul shows in Las Vegas with wife Faith Hill, who deserves a bit of credit for helping her husband get sober five years ago. "I only learned how to text because back when I was drinking, I would get in trouble when I would call my wife and she would find out I was drinking," Tim told On the Red Carpet back in 2011. "And then I started slurring my texts and I figured hell, I gotta quit drinking. Thank God nobody knew anything about Skype back then -- I would've never stayed out of trouble!".