In the four short months since he was crowned the winner of American Idol, Scotty McCreery has already racked up a couple of radio hits with such tunes as "I Love You This Big" and "The Trouble With Girls."
But now the 17-year-old country crooner is heading back into our living rooms via the small screen...
Introducing: Scotty McCreery, a new special making its debut on Great American Country next Monday, offers up a one-of-a-kind behind the scenes look at how the kid from Garner, North Carolina, wound up where he is today.
"My first competition was Clayton Idol in 2009," recalls McCreery about the singing contest at the Clayton Harvest Festival in Clayton, N.C. "Before that, I'd only sung in church and not really anything outside of that, so I figured it would be nice to give it a chance. I ended up winning the whole thing. So that opened the door for me outside of church and I learned a lot from that. That was definitely a stepping stone in my life as a musician."
But, of course, the biggest step toward stardom came last May.
"Hearing Ryan Seacrest say my name and say, 'The winner of American Idol is Scotty McCreery,' I don't know if a word can describe that feeling," says McCreery about the big night. "I broke down a little bit...I wanted to go down and hug my parents and hug the people that I brought there that were supporting me from day one. It was pretty insane."
Well, McCreery is about to see how much more insane things might get when his debut album, Clear As Day, is released next Tuesday.