Margo Price's Sobriety Has Put Her in the 'Best Head Space of My Life': 'I Just Feel Really Happy' (Exclusive)

Margo Price is in "the best headspace of her life" nowadays — and she has staying away from alcohol to thank for it.

The "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)" creator, 41, tells PEOPLE that achieving sobriety was seminal in making serious life changes that have since allowed her to flourish in her day-to-day activities.

"I played at Willie [Nelson's] ranch last night. I was there until 12:30 [in the morning]," Price shares, joking, "I was like, 'Okay, if I would've been boozing, it would've been a much rougher morning.' I got up ... two hours sleep and set my alarm at 4:20. That's it. Get up, hit the road and I'm here and ready to give people the best show."

Without alcohol, Price notes that she has "absolutely" achieved a level of clarity that she previously found difficulty tapping into. "I feel like I'm in the best head space of my life. I feel like my creative juices are functioning on all cylinders and I just feel really happy."

Price previously touched on her substance abuse during a candid conversation with PEOPLE in 2018, revealing at the time that the loss of her twin son, Ezra, just two weeks after his birth, led to "a whole ‘nother period of depression" that spiraled into alcoholism. “When you lose a child you cope differently," she further noted at the time.

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In a 2024 essay penned for GQ, Price shared that she stopped drinking alcohol, calling it "the most rebellious thing I've ever done in my life."

"The longer you live, the more time you have to sit with death," Price wrote at the time. "I've been a witness to more loss than I should have seen in my early years. But I'm not afraid to die anymore. And I'm not afraid to live without the comfort of self-medicating."

The singer concedes to PEOPLE now that although "there's a lot of turmoil going on in the world right now," she takes solace in finally "being able to stay positive and stay focused about what we can do," calling the mental shift "life-changing."

"I feel like I'm aging backwards," Price adds of the positive benefits of her lifestyle changes.

Speaking to what the perfect day in her life is now, Price — who recently launched her own Gibson guitar — highlights a few consistencies. "I would get up and go to a really long hike, I love being in nature. I love hiking, I love canoeing and fishing and all the outdoor stuff. Then maybe I would go do a sauna and a cold plunge."

To cap it all off, she says "a doobie and sitting around the fire and play[ing] guitar" is all she needs to feel at peace.