Quitting booze helped country star Tim Mcgraw improve his relationship with his wife Faith Hill.

The Live Like We're Dying hitmaker put down the bottle in 2008 after his excessive drinking started to interfere with his personal life. MCGraw's been sober ever since and he insists it's had a profound impact on his marriage to Hill.

He tells People magazine, "I wasn't a beer drinker. I was more a whiskey drinker. And I wouldn't just have a drink. If I was going to drink, I'd have some drinks. People were worried about me. It was to the point where I felt it was negatively affecting my relationships and getting in the way of things I wanted to accomplish in life. So I quit... I am probably less embarrassing to her now."

The singer now uses the extra time to concentrate on his health by cutting sugar from his diet and training with martial arts expert Roger Yuan for 90-minute sessions, three times a day.

Showing off his eight-pack abs during a photo shoot for the publication, he adds, "My workout programme took the place of alcohol, and it's really important... I was always in pretty good shape but for a while I let it go a little bit. There are aches and pains but I feel pretty young."