Scotty McCreery is opening up about his new single, “Bottle Rockets,” a collaboration with Hootie & the Blowfish. The song was the most-added at radio the week it was released. But for McCreery, the ability to have a song out with Hootie & the Blowfish is a dream come true, for a much more personal reason.
“I love those guys, Hootie & the Blowfish,” McCreery says on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen. “I’m so glad they came on the song with me, ’cause I’m so excited about it.”
McCreery reveals he was on a writing retreat in the mountains of North Carolina when “Bottle Rockets” was penned. McCreery wrote the song with Brent Anderson, Derek George, Jeremy Bussey, Monty Criswell, Frank Rogers and Bobby Hamrick. The four writers on “Hold My Hand,” including lead singer Darius Rucker, are also credited as songwriters on “Bottle Rockets” as well.
“We had a lot of songs started going into that retreat, but this song came out of a conversation,” McCreery remembers. “This was us reminiscing on previous summers, like ‘I remember my last summer of no job, no responsibilities and school was out. That was such a fun summer.’ And for me in the Carolinas, and I think for everybody worldwide, Hootie & the Blowfish were huge. It was just talking about those soundtracks of summer. I forget who played into it first, but the chords were kind of matching, and we were like, ‘Man, that’s kind of cool,’ so we just ran with it.”
McCreery grew up as fans of Hootie & the Blowfish, but he now also counts Rucker among his closest friends as well.
“We’re in the same fantasy league together,” the Grand Ole Opry member says. “I love the guy. But, I was kind of nervous to ask him to do it, because I was like, ‘This has gotta be one of their babies. I don’t know if they’ll even want to touch this.’ But they loved it, and they were so gracious and supportive of it. So having them on, just game-changer.”
“Our love of sports is kind of what brought us together, like NC State,” he continues. “A lot of people in the Hootie & the Blowfish camp went to NC State, and that’s where I went to school, so we’ve got a little friendly rivalry there. We’ve been to football games together, and we got to do C2C overseas together, and I think that’s when we really became super close.”
McCreery and his wife, Gabi, recently announced they are expecting their second child this fall.
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McCreery will release Seasons Change: Platinum Edition on June 20. The new project includes all of the songs on McCreery’s 2018 Seasons Change record, with four bonus acoustic tracks. The bonus acoustic tracks are “In Between,” “Five More Minutes,” “This Is It” and “Still.”
“The Seasons Change album was truly life-changing for me,” says McCreery of the 2018 project. “After experiencing both some career highs and lows, I was starting over. For the first time, I co-wrote all the songs and felt like the project was truly me. It has been both gratifying and confidence-building to see how the fans, radio and streaming have embraced the music from this album and me. I’m a guy who loves to look back, and I celebrate the release of this new expanded edition and all the accomplishments we’ve made since the original album came out, while also looking ahead to making new dreams come true.”
McCreery is currently headlining his own UK Tour. He will also head out on the road later this year on the co-headlining Two For The Road Tour with Dustin Lynch. Find “Bottle Rockets” and all of McCreery’s music and upcoming shows at ScottyMcCreery.com.