At only 30 years old, Scotty McCreery has seen it all.
The North Carolinian rose to instant stardom after winning season ten of American Idol in 2011, which led to a longstanding career in Music City thanks to honest storytelling, powerful vocals and a timeless sound.
But success doesn’t come overnight, and there’s a cycle of many ups and downs when trying to balance living life and chasing a dream. So, when the opportunity came for Scotty to put together songs for a new album, he chose to detail both the good and the bad in his latest release Rise & Fall.
“We all go through them. Life’s rarely just all ups or all downs; it’s a roller coaster, and my life was no different, even though on social media I put the best stuff out there. It might look great, but man, we’ve had some bumpy roads,” Scotty tells Celeb Secrets about the concept of his new record in an exclusive interview.
“I don’t think we could have made this album without going through both the highs and probably more so the lows. I think you learn more from those than you do the good times, so the songwriting, the sound, and everything was just inspired by both the rise and the falls of life.”
Co-writing 12 of the 13 songs off the new project, Scotty wanted listeners to hear real-life stories along with a nostalgic, throwback sound that meshes well with the ever-changing genre that we call country music. To no surprise, Rise & Fall received a ton of praise from other music critics and fans worldwide, and even debuted at No.1 on Billboard’s Country Album Chart.
“I think that’s become important to me over the years,” Scotty says of taking the reins when it comes to writing his own songs. “For my first couple of albums, I didn’t write much at all. My third album was the first time I ever wrote songs from the heart, like ‘Five More Minutes.'”
“I think I’ve just learned, you know, in country music especially, it’s real people telling real stories and you’re telling those stories out there to everyday people. I think they relate to it a little more when it comes from the heart,” he continues.
And while Scotty is so proud of every song on Rise & Fall, the “Cab in a Solo” singer says that some of his favorite memories (and true inspiration) came when he was writing on the back porch in the mountains.
“‘Cab in a Solo’ and ‘Fall of Summer’ are the two songs where we were just kind of sitting there like, ‘Oh man, we really found something here,'” he shares.
“Sometimes when you’re writing, you don’t hear it for months as you’re listening to the demos. But those days [in the mountains] we kind of knew we struck something that was at least special to us. You never know if it’ll mean something to anybody else, but we loved it that day and it’s been fun to see ‘Cab in a Solo’ kind of do its thing on the charts and hopefully ‘Fall of Summer’ next,” he continues.
To celebrate the new release, Scotty made appearances in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville earlier this month to talk about the creative process behind Rise & Fall as well as perform a few tracks for his biggest fans. Describing the entire time as a “whirlwind,” the 30-year-old teamed up with New York’s Country 94.7 for an intimate “Audacy Live” at the Hard Rock Hotel for a conversation with host Sabrina from Queens and a meet and greet with special guests in attendance.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but it’s been awesome. Busy is a good thing,” he says. “When you put an album out, you want to get the word out about something you feel passionate about. I’ve never loved an album more than this one that we made. We’ve been in New York; we were in LA; and before that, we played the Opry. We’ve been all over.”
As for what’s next, Scotty will take zero time off and head right back to the road for what he calls a “busy summer” filled with different performances across the nation.
“It’s kind of that instant satisfaction as opposed to making a record, wait for it to come out, and then touring it,” McCreery shares. “And then seeing people message you or seeing them on the road… it’s like when you play a song live, it’s the instant feedback, you know? It makes you feel good when they’re smiling, dancing, high-fiving, clapping… all that stuff.”
You can watch highlights from Scotty’s Audacy Live panel below and don’t forget to let us know if you’re loving Rise & Fall by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecretscountry.
LISTEN TO “RISE & FALL” HERE:
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