Scotty McCreery earned his first No. 1 hit in 2018 with “Five More Minutes.” The song, from his fourth studio album, Seasons Change,  was written by McCreery, along with Frank Rogers and Monty Criswell, and inspired by the loss of McCreery’s grandfather.

Now, five years after the song landed at the top of the charts, the American Idol alum’s song has gained an entirely new generation of fans, thanks to it trending on TikTok, with creators showing who they would like to spend five more minutes with, including family, friends, pets and more. The song has had more than 367 million views on the platform, with more than 230,000 videos created using the thought-provoking tune.

“I’m glad to see ‘Five More Minutes’ getting a new life,” McCreery says. “It’s my favorite song I’ve ever written, and probably always will be. It’s both personal and universal at the same time. I love seeing folks use it with their own videos to share their feelings on TikTok.”

“Five More Minutes” was the first of McCreery’s five consecutive chart-topping hits, including his multi-week, No. 1 single, “Damn Strait.” But although he has released several songs since then, the North Carolina native still tears up when singing the deeply personal song.

“I still get emotional with ‘Five More Minutes,’ and I wrote that song seven years ago,” McCreery admitted on the Bobby Bones Show in 2022.  “A few nights ago we were playing a show with Brooks & Dunn in West Virginia, and my granddaddy who I wrote the song for is from West Virginia. The whole time I’m singing it, I’m thinking, ‘Man, Granddaddy would totally be here right now, wearing his Mountaineer sweatshirt.’ I just kind of get lost in the lights above. It kind of got me. I get emotional all of the time.”

Although “Five More Minutes” was personal to McCreery, he admits he had no idea how well the song would resonate with others as well.

“I’m not sure that I knew the audience reaction would be like that,” McCreery told The Music Universe. “I knew as soon as we wrote it, and I tweeted it out that day on Twitter — I said, ‘I think I just wrote my favorite song I’ve ever written.’ And that’s really how I felt and I think still do. It’s one of those songs where you kind of realize how much more alike we all are than different, because anybody at any point in their life, whether they’re young, middle-aged, old, they’ve all got those moments where they wish they could have five more minutes.

“Whether it was a loved one that’s gone, passed on, or whether it’s just thinking back to little moments, like the front porch kiss in the song, and thinking of the high school days when you just graduated and now those days are over,” he added. “There are so many little moments throughout life that I think anybody who listened can think to a moment in their own life where they wish they had that much time left.”

McCreery is enjoying a Top 15 hit with “It Matters To Her.” He will wrap up his headlining Damn Strait Tour at the end of this month. He will also join  Brooks & Dunn next month on their REBOOT 2023 Tour. Find music and tour dates at ScottyMcCreery.com.

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