Correction: Country singer Scotty McCreery was the 2011 recipient of the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year Award. This story incorrectly stated which organization gave the award.
Scotty McCreery's house is a mess.
Just off the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the 21-year-old, multiplatinum country music star's grass isn't mowed, there's a traffic cone on his roof and the porch is falling in.
Scotty McCreery
8 p.m. Saturday, Magic Springs & Crystal Falls Water and Theme Park, 1701 E. Grand Ave. (U.S. 70 East), Hot Springs
Admission: Lawn seating is part of gate admission: $59.99 day of concert; $36.99 children shorter than 4 feet and adults 55 and older, free for children 3 and younger. Season passes: $69.99. Limited reserved seating, additional $10 or $8. Parking at extra cost.
(501) 624-0100
"I've lived there the past three years on campus and our lease is up for that dumpy college house and this July we're gonna move out of there," McCreery says.
Probably fitting for the winner of the 10th season of American Idol, who, according to his label, has sold 2.5 million albums in four years.
He'll be performing at Magic Springs on Saturday.
It's been four years since a fresh-faced McCreery showed up at an Idol audition in Milwaukee and entered the music scene, becoming, at 17, an instant hit with country music fans. His deep voice, clean-cut look and talent led to three albums debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. With hits like "The Trouble With Girls," "See You Tonight" and "I Love You This Big," the college sophomore -- he put his education on hold after two years -- and 2011 Country Music Association New Artist of the Year moved up from writing songs on the porch to spending his summer with Rascal Flatts, touring the country and working on a new album.
"Everything has been awesome, just about as good as it can get," McCreery says. Rascal Flatts, he adds, "is a great band, a great crew, great fans everywhere. It should be a great tour."
McCreery will perform in 23 states and Canada before the Rascal Flatts Riot Tour is over. His Arkansas stop is a solo show, his third time playing in the state, he says.
"There are some big-time country fans in Arkansas; we enjoy getting down there," he says. "They know my music more there than a lot of places. Even our album cuts, not just the hits."
Between stops, McCreery says, he's working on his fourth studio album, his first since 2013's See You Tonight. Since shows on the tour are primarily on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, McCreery says that in his downtime he heads back home to that dumpy North Carolina house to work on the new album and to write.
He expects the album to come out sometime this winter.
"With this next album, I really want to take a step back toward country," he says. "I've been listening to a lot of Merle Haggard and George Jones and Elvis. Lots of Elvis. But that's not really what's going on right now in country music. So I want to take a step back toward country."
McCreery says he plans on releasing a single no later than mid-July.
The last few months, he says, have been just about perfect, despite the ending of American Idol, which Fox executives announced in May will end after its 15th season, which begins in January.
"It's sad to see it come to an end," McCreery says. "I like to be one of Idol's biggest cheerleaders. They were pretty dominant over the course of a few years. But, like all good things it had to come to an end."
McCreery wants to eventually get back to being a full-time student, finish up his marketing degree at North Carolina State and start working on the next album.
And maybe clean his house.
Weekend on 06/25/2015