Tim McGraw Says He 'Would've Died Already' If He Hadn't Married Faith Hill at Age 29 (Exclusive)

"I probably would've ran my career into the ground," McGraw told Apple Music

Tim McGraw is glad he's better than he used to be — and he owes that to his marriage to Faith Hill.

The country star, 56, told Apple Music that he "would've died already" with his career at rock bottom had he not tied the knot with his wife of nearly 27 years.

"I guarantee you, had I not gotten married to Faith at 29 years old A, I probably would've ran my career into the ground, and B, I would've died already with my career into the ground, one or the other, and it wouldn't have ever been where it's at now," he told host Zane Lowe.

McGraw, who has battled alcoholism and has been sober since 2008, also opened up about how long Hill, 55, put up with his "wild years" before he needed to get his act together.

"Well, I don't know if the maturity's occurred yet, but she put up with it for a while because I was pretty sneaky about it for a while," he said, laughing. "But it was just overdoing stuff, and then I think when the kids got old enough that they could notice things is when she finally said, 'You've got to figure this out.'"

Related: Tim McGraw Says He Loves Wife Faith Hill's Southern Food and Reveals His Favorite Cheat Meals

The "Humble and Kind" musician also touched on his creative partnership with his wife and how "brutal" but "honest" she can be.

"I'm always playing her the songs that I want to record and playing the mixes as I'll go along, and there's times we don't agree. There's times where she goes, 'I don't like the way that sounds.' 'Well, I do, and that's way it's going to stay.' And the same thing when she's making a record. It's like, 'I think this should be your single.' She goes, 'No, I don't like that song. This is going to be the single.' I go, 'All right,'" McGraw explained.

"She's right about her stuff and I'm usually right about my stuff, but most of the time we agree," he concluded.

Additionally, McGraw discussed the importance of putting his family first.

"Faith and I, the lucky thing for us, when we decided to get married, we knew we wanted a family and we knew we wanted our family to come first, and we were 29 when we got married," he said. "We were both successful, and so when we got married and decided to have a family, we had had enough success at that time that we could pick and choose when we wanted to work and how we wanted to work."

Related: Tim McGraw's Daughters Turned Him Down After He Asked to Collab on Song: 'Ain't Singing with You'

He explained that the couple "built our whole schedules around our family life."

"Our kids traveled with us until school started and when school started, we didn't work when school was going on, for the most part," he said.

He added, "I coached softball, I coached basketball, we did tailgate parties for the cheerleaders at all the football games, we lived our life just like everybody else. We were Mr. and Ms. McGraw when showing up. We had 15 teenage girls at our house all the time, we're cooking for them, and they're singing and playing music and hanging out by the pool."

Related: Tim McGraw Celebrates His 26-Year Marriage to Wife Faith Hill: 'It's Like 96 in Show Business'

McGraw will release his 17th studio album Standing Room Only on Friday via Big Machine Records and McGraw Music. In a press release, he called the project "some of the most emotional, thought-provoking and life-affirming music I've ever recorded."

In 2024, he'll hit the road for his headlining Standing Room Only Tour, which will kick off on March 14 in Jacksonville, Florida and run through June 27 where he'll perform in Phoenix, Arizona.

McGraw's interview with Lowe airs in full on Apple Music 1 on Thursday at 1 p.m. EST at apple.co/_Zane.

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