Tim McGraw Admits to Drunk Texting

More proof cell phones should come with an attached breathalyzer ....

Tim McGraw has admitted part of his motivation for getting clean and sober was realizing his bad habit of drunk texting wife Faith Hill!

"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 tells On the Red Carpet with a laugh. "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!"

Tim quit drinking about three years ago. He credits the recipient of his intoxicated calls for helping him change his ways.

"Faith has kept me alive," Tim told People magazine, adding that if not for his wife, "I'd be dead. I would have partied too hard. I might have caught myself somewhere along the way and put the brakes on. I don't know if I would have gone [to rehab]; don't think I could have been talked into that during those times ... 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 can go down a dark road sometimes, when you're not feeling good about yourself -- and she pulls me out."

Tim jokes that he plays the "Faith" role in his current movie, 'Country Strong,' as the sober half of a struggling couple, while Gwyneth Paltrow plays the old Tim -- a country star struggling with substance abuse. But in all seriousness, he insists his life off the screen never really compared to that of the intense situations he and Gwyneth act out on screen. "I had some problems, but this was a whole deeper thing here," Tim told The Boot at a 'Country Strong' press junket. "It's a totally different relationship than I have with my wife because [Faith's] actually the boss. [laughs] I don't know anything about being in charge in our relationship."

Watch a preview of 'Country Strong' below.