Scotty McCreery already has plenty to celebrate this year, even without the presents under the tree. The “It Matters To Her” singer is celebrating the arrival of his first child, son Avery, with his wife, Gabi.
“I get the best Christmas present of all this year,” McCreery tells the Country Music Association. “This is my first Christmas as a dad, so I’m just excited to spend it as a family. It’s always been me and my wife and my dog, and now we’re adding little man to it. So, I can’t wait to just give him presents that he won’t even know are there, but that one day hopefully he’ll appreciate, and just spending that quality time together.”
The North Carolina native is excited to have their son join their Christmas celebrations, even if some of them involve traveling.
“As far as traditions go, me and my wife, it’s typically just the every other year with the family that we do. Her family’s all from Louisiana, so a lot of times we go to New Orleans for Christmas one year, and then we’ll stay back in Carolina for one Christmas with my family. I have a feeling we’ll be continuing that all. Maybe we’ll have some Southern Christmases for sure, some Cajun Christmases. I didn’t grow up eating crawfish for Christmas, but he’s gonna get used to it.”
Avery might be the best Christmas gift of all, but there’s another gift he received that is also memorable, and was the beginning of his country music career.
“My best Christmas gift I ever received was probably my very first guitar,” McCreery recalls. “I was picking that thing up; I had no clue what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to play some Elvis songs, so I got to learn it pretty quick. It was what got me started on this journey.”
McCreery likely will be soaking up all of the time at home that he can this holiday season, before he embarks on his 2023 Damn Strait Tour, which kicks off on January 20. Fortunately, the 29-year-old will be joined for at least some of the dates by his wife and son.
“Next year we’re gonna bring out a baby bus, so we’ll get him out there,” McCreery tells Everything Nash.. 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’s Same Truck: The Deluxe Album is out now. Music and tour dates can be found at ScottyMcCreery.com.