Country star credits wife and fatherhood for calming his ‘demons’ during candid podcast appearance

Tim McGraw reveals ‘best part’ of wife Faith Hill’s birthday
Country star Tim McGraw tells Fox News Digital the surprising gift he gave wife Faith Hill on her birthday.

Tim McGraw owes his life to wife Faith Hill.

During an appearance on the “Tracy Lawrence’s Road House” podcast, McGraw, 58, opened up about his nearly 30-year-long marriage to Hill and explained how she managed to help the country star turn his life around.

“I’ve been lucky. I’ve been very fortunate. First off, meeting my wife saved my life. I was a wild man,” he said. “I was having fun.”

“She turned my life around. I couldn’t have found a better woman. Not only beautiful and talented, but just a good, good person. And then having our daughters,” McGraw, who shares Gracie, 27, Maggie, 26, and Audrey, 23, with Hill, added. “It’s life-changing. They make you a better person, and they certainly calm the demons in you.”

The couple have been married since 1996. (Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for ACM)

“[Fatherhood] changed my perspective. It changed the way I thought about what my future would be. It certainly took me out of myself,” said McGraw, who’s been sober since 2008 and candidly spoken in the past about how Hill supported him in quitting alcohol.

The country music superstars met in 1994 in Nashville. They were both in relationships with other people at the time, and it wasn’t until she performed as his opening act on a 1996 tour that they started dating.

Tim McGraw and wife Faith Hill share three daughters together. (J. Merritt/FilmMagic)

Looking back on that time, McGraw told People, “We were young and silly and goo-goo-eyed in love.”

Hill, who was engaged to record producer Scott Hendricks at the time, later opened up about getting together with McGraw, telling the publication, “If someone is going to judge my character because I was engaged to somebody and then I left him for somebody else — ‘Oh, OK, now she’s a slut and a bad person’ — I can’t control that. But I wasn’t about to let Tim slip through my hands.”

McGraw said wife Faith Hill saved him from his “wild” past. (Rick Diamond)

McGraw, who’s been open about his personal struggles throughout the years, once admitted he probably wouldn’t be alive had he not crossed paths with his now-wife nearly three decades ago.

“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,” McGraw told Apple Music host Zane Lowe in 2023, via People.