Scotty McCreery just celebrated his fifth No. 1 hit, with “Damn Strait.” McCreery followed the song, which spent three weeks at the top of the charts, with “It Matters To Her,” a song that is already in the Top 40 and climbing. The North Carolina native wrote “It Matters To Her” with Rhett Akins and Lee Thomas Miller, inspired by lessons he learned in the four years he has been married to his wife, Gabi.
“It’s a song that I love,” McCreery tells Everything Nash. “And it’s a message I think needs to be heard, and it’s coming off of my biggest song to date with ‘Damn Strait.’ So it’s so fun right now, just getting to go out there … to see the fans singing these songs back to me, and the smiles on their faces. It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t have these five number ones, these hits to play, and I was grounding up some covers to try and entertain the crowd. And so now to have my own stuff that they get excited for, it’s pretty special.”
McCreery was already having success before “Damn Strait,” with songs like “You Time,” “Five More Minutes” and more. But it was “Damn Strait” that the 29-year-old credits with taking his career to a new level.
“The minute that I heard that song, I knew it was special to me,” McCreery says. “I was hoping it would be special to others. But the fans, they really connected with that one. And if you love country music, you gotta love George Strait. That’s why I think that song, it just did so well for us.”
McCreery just released his Same Truck: The Deluxe Album, which includes “Live A Little,” “Nothin’ Right” and “Small Town Story.” But there’s another song on the project that he says might be his favorite, “Falling For a Stranger,” even though it’s one he didn’t write.
“I love them all. For me, one that I go back to a lot — the groove, everything about ‘Falling For a Stranger’ is one that I really love,” McCreery says of the track that was written by Aaron Eshuis, Travis Wood, and Hannah Ellis. “It’s that sentiment. Me and Gabi, we’ve known each other our whole lives, so she never really was a stranger to me. But the idea behind it of just like, ‘Man, if I never knew you, and you walked in to a bar, I would have locked in on you right away.’ So that one is cool for me.”
McCreery just returned to touring, after the birth of his first child, son Merrick Avery. Although the American Idol alum won’t have his wife or baby out with him now, he is already making plans to tour as a family in 2023.
“For the end of this year, he’s not gonna make it out to any shows,” McCreery says. “He’s still young, but next year we’re gonna bring out a baby bus, so we’ll get him out there. Gabi will be out there a lot with me too, so he’ll have his own little crib and everything. It’ll be a completely different way to do the road for me. I’ve been doing it now over ten years. I’ve got my system, so this is gonna throw that for a loop, but I can’t wait. It’s gonna be awesome.”
McCreery will perform at the Grand Ole Opry on December 4 as part of the annual Opry Country Christmas celebration. Purchase Same Truck: The Deluxe Album, and find music and tour dates at ScottyMcCreery.com.
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