More than ten years after winning the tenth season of American Idol, Scotty McCreery arrives with his fifth studio album, driving the Same Truck he won on the popular singing competition.
The 27-year-old wrote ten of the record's twelve tracks, including his top five hit, "You Time." In fact, he believed he was almost done with the follow-up to 2018's Seasons Change -- and then 2020 happened.
"You know, I thought I had this album pretty much ready to go a couple of years ago," Scotty reveals. "But then after COVID hit, suddenly [I] had a lot of extra time on my hands. So I started writing new songs and before I knew it, we'd come up with almost a whole new album."
For Scotty, Same Truck has both a literal and a much deeper meaning.
"Can you believe I'm actually driving the same truck I won 10 years ago as part of my American Idol title?" he asks. "The truck's name is Loretta after one of my favorites, Loretta Lynn."
Amid divisive times, Scotty believes we're more alike than different, i.e. we're all in the same boat -- or "Same Truck," if you're from North Carolina.
"[It] was one of those songs that got started by a conversation talking about how I drive the same truck..." he tells ABC Audio. "But it morphed into something a lot more important than that, just talking about how, 'Hey, guys, we're all on the same team here. Let's build each other up instead of tear each other down.'"
"And it's just a message I think we all need to hear right now," he adds.
Same Truck is new today, and features Scotty's nod to King George, "Damn Strait," which he's set to sing Tuesday on NBC's Today show.