At age 10, he received his first guitar a Christmas present from his grandfather. It is probably my favorite Christmas present. I started strumming right away. I might not have sounded good but I was strumming. That guitar carried me a long way, for sure. Actually, he became so obsessed with the instrument that he slept with it that winter. Choosing songs for this record wasnt that difficult. Songs like (O Holy Night )and (First Noel) and (Mary Did You Know) I’ve sung those songs for years, so those songs have a history with me. He also has a history of loving the music of Elvis Presley. As a boy, he was inspired by a book his grandmother gave him that offered suggestions on how to be like Elvis. He listened to Elvis cassettes and even dressed up like Elvis for Halloween.
His other passion was baseball, and McCreery pitched for his high-school team while he pursued music. He also worked briefly in an auto-mechanic shop and for a longer stint as a grocery cashier throughout his junior year in high school. Then came the American Idol audition in Milwaukee 2010 where he impressed the judges by singing (Your Man). In May 2011 he won the show at age 17 becoming the shows first country male winner and its youngest male winner in any genre. (I Love You This Big)was instantly issued as his debut single. On June 10, he staged his debut at the Grand Ole Opry.
The album came out in October as he turned 18, and (I Love You This Big) became a gold record. By the end of the year, Clear as Day was certified gold, as was its second single, (The Trouble with Girls.) In December, Scotty McCreery was named Billboard magazine’s No.1 new country artist of the year and won New Artist of the Year at the fan-voted American Country Awards. Just three months after its release, Clear as Day was certified platinum in January 2012, and McCreery began touring with country stars Brad Paisley and The Band Perry. He took school work for his senior year in high school with him, helped by his mother, a former teacher. That spring, he introduced his third single. (Water Tower Town,) won the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year trophy and earned a Breakthrough Video honor at the CMT Awards. From July 6 to the end of September, McCreery toured in the American Idols Live! show. In between tour stops he worked on his album Clear as Day with producer Mark Bright.