While Scotty McCreery is learning about American history, the 17-year-old country singer is also busy making some of his own.
In May, he won Season Ten of American Idol, becoming the youngest male winner in the show’s nine-year history. A record-breaking 122.4 million votes were cast for Scotty and runner-up Lauren Alaina. The final show garnered 29.3 million viewers and 38.6 million people tuned in to see the winner’s name announced.
He recently made his Grand Ole Opry debut and performed with Josh Turner at Nashville’s LP Field during CMA Music Fest. He’s performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today show, and just finished touring with the American Idols Live tour.
“I’ve always dreamed of having a career in country music,” Scotty says. “I just never thought it could happen. I had never really given myself a chance. Idol gave me the chance and I ran with it. I’m having a good time with it. It’s what I wanted to do and I’m making a career out of it.”
His debut single, “I Love You This Big,” was not only the perfect single to perform for American Idol’s finale moment, but it was a wonderful way to launch his country career. “It just thanks everybody,” he says. “You can take it to the fans, to my family or my savior Christ– ‘I love you this big.’ There are so many ways you can interpret this song, and that’s why I loved it so much, because anyone can relate to it. It fits me well and I hope I’ll be singing it for 30 years.”
And that’s exactly how his producer, Mark Bright, describes him. “He is an old soul. It is an incredible thing, that someone that age fully understands what is before him and is completely unaffected by that. I have never seen anything like it in my life. He loves it and he understands the opportunity he’s been given and he wants to work, work, work to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Scotty, who was born in Raleigh, N.C., and raised in Garner, N.C., grew up in a musical household with his older sister, Ashley. By age 3, he was singing “The Muffin Man” to anyone who would listen,and a few years later he was repeating the words of those around him in a song. His father, an electric systems analyst, and his mother, a real estate agent and school teacher, sang in the church choir, as did their children. “I was the first one who ventured out to do different things,” says Scotty, who performed church solos.
His parents, as well as his chorus teacher, believe something else gave Scotty the confidence to perform in public – pitching baseball. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was also a baseball pitcher, Scotty learned to pitch at an early age.
“When you are a pitcher, all eyes are on you,” says his mother, Judy. “You have to be focused and able to handle pressure.” It turns out that Scotty is as pitch-perfect on the mound as he in onstage: in his last varsity high school game, he pitched a complete shut-out and struck out nine batters.
The advice he got during American Idol is the same he’s been receiving from country legends such as Roy Clark, Mel Tillis and Charley Pride: don’t change.
“The reason I made it this far is that I was real on television,” he says. “I didn’t try to be somebody I wasn’t. What you see is what you get – Scotty on TV, Scotty off of TV. I think that is why I have come this far. I don’t plan on changing. I don’t think Hollywood or Nashville will get to me.”
Information gathered from www.gomoxie.org
