Scotty McCreery Talks New Album, Book and Rascal Flatts’ ‘Grand Slam’
When Scotty McCreery thought about casting cheerleaders in the video for his new single “Southern Belle,” he knew he didn’t want them to be seen as gratuitous eye candy. Instead, he wanted to shine a light on their inherent strength. “Obviously they’re pretty and everything, which is awesome, but it’s showcasing how strong they are,” McCreery tells Rolling Stone Country of the women in the video, members of the cheerleading squads from Nashville’s Belmont and Lipscomb Universities. “Anyone who doesn’t think cheerleading is a sport, I laugh. I played baseball my whole life and I couldn’t flip or twirl.”
The 22-year-old musician, who had a hit with “The Trouble With Girls” in 2011, says he’s discovering more and more about the opposite sex every day, especially their resiliency. “There’s a lot to women, I’m finding out through my girlfriend, through all kinds of folks,” he says.
He’s also found out a lot about himself since skyrocketing to fame at 17 on American Idol‘s 10th season. The North Carolina native reflects that maturity on his third studio album, due out early next year, as well as in his autobiography, coming in May.
McCreery’s last studio album, See You Tonight, was released in October 2013, giving him more than two years in between albums. While that’s par for the course by country music industry standards, the business-savvy singer admits concern. “We should have had another single before ‘Southern Belle’ to bridge that gap,” McCreery says. “Feels a lot longer to the fans than it does to me. This was the way I wanted to make the album, take time to make sure it’s right. We had some success last time, but I’m not content with that. I want some Number Ones, and that starts with the music, and I want to make sure it’s right on my end. I’ve been writing a lot more and that takes a while.”
Among the songs he co-wrote on the new album is a track called “Five More Minutes,” which strikes a particularly personal note. “This song takes you back to when you were a kid and Mama’s yelling at you to come inside and you’re just, ‘Five more minutes!’ Or having your girlfriend out there and her dad’s yelling for her to come inside,” he says. “It ends up on my grandfather, who passed in January, and there are a few things I wish I could have said [and] done with him before he went. There are some personal things I would have tried to get across to him or even just some lighthearted things like that last time I played golf with him.”