Scotty McCreery Talks Hits, Heart, and Hootie with Elaina Smith

It’s always a good week when Scotty McCreery is on the airwaves! For the week of May 19-23, he’s turning up the charm as he co-hosts Backstage Country. With a string of hits, a brand-new song with Hootie & the Blowfish, McCreery is taking fans behind the scenes of his songwriting process and having a blast with Elaina Smith while doing it. 

McCreery admitted it’s still crazy to think he has a song with Hootie & the Blowfish: “I mean, I grew up listening to their music, right? I mean, they were huge everywhere, but in the Carolinas, where we're from, they were like, they were it. So, to have a song with the whole band Hootie & the Blowfish and see it come together, I'm still pinching myself.” 

Smith asked how the collaboration went down. The American Idol alum shared that he had taken some of his buddies to a little riders retreat and already had a lot of songs started. He said, “But this song came out of a conversation of reminiscing on summers. The old summers back in the day where we all had those memories, those times we go back to and we all have the soundtracks too, that kind of wore the beat and the foundation of those summers. Hootie & the Blowfish was it for me, and I was talking about it. All of a sudden, somebody was strumming a guitar, and we just started going, everybody's got a summer you can't forget.” 

He added, “Darius [Rucker] has been a friend now for a while through country music and everything. I was scared to ask him to be honest, cause this song has to be one of his babies, one of the band's babies, you know? But they all loved it and were so supportive of it. And they took it from being a cool song to like one that I'm so fired up about.” 

Smith then threw it back to one of McCreery’s biggest hits and asked the country crooner if he feels emotional performing “Five More Minutes” in 2025. McCreery said, “It is, yeah.” He chuckled, “And you saying that's kind of got me thinking it really was 10 years ago that we wrote this, over 10 years ago. So, you know, this is one of those songs where I was unsure about putting it out because it's so personal to me.” 

He added that he was nervous to release the song because it’s very personal to him: “I had lost my granddaddy, Bill, before writing this song. That's where the song got its start was just talking about wanting to have one more conversation with granddad, wanting to go have one more round of golf with him. It said, you want five more minutes with them. And I said, ‘That's exactly right.’ That's the song we're going to write today. So still very emotional.” 

Tune in all week long to hear more of their conversations. This country duo is sure to bring all the good vibes. For more of Scotty McCreery’s music, videos, and tour dates, visit his website here.