From PEOPLE Magazine Click to enlarge
Between his music career, running his own winery and hosting a weekly radio show, Kix Brooks needs a place to get away from it all. "I love the business of music, and I love the action of the real world, but this...this is how I recharge my batteries," Brooks says of his 600-acre farm, which good friend and neighbor Tim McGraw persuaded him to buy in 1997. "If you get to really experience the woods, where you can't see power lines, people or roads, you realize that there is a serenity in the world."

In fact it was the farm that inspired the 2001 Brooks & Dunn hit "Only in America." "Don Cook, Ronny Rogers and I actually wrote the song right here at the farm," says Brooks, 55. "We were out here on ATVs, and we just got so inspired by nature."

But it's not just about relaxation and inspiration. "It's a good place to play," says Brooks of the property about an hour from downtown Nashville. "My favorite thing is to get on a four-wheeler, take a chain saw and get in the woods until I can't get through. Then I'll cut a tree down and keep going and going until I look back and I've cut a new trail. It's a good day's work."