Scotty McCreery Watches ‘American Idol’ With His Wife 14 Years After Win: ‘I’m Still a Huge Fan’ (Exclusive)

Scotty McCreery will never forget the show that helped make his country music dreams a reality.

“Yeah, we still watch [American Idol]. I’m still a huge fan, but my wife’s gonna watch every week,” McCreery, 31, exclusively shared with Us Weekly on Thursday, June 5. “I reminisce all the time.”

In May 2011, McCreery was crowned the season 10 winner of American Idol after wowing the viewers and the judge’s panel, which included Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

Recently, the “Five More Minutes” singer found himself looking over old emails that detailed his time on the reality competition show.

“Last night, I had to go to my secondary email to look for an order that was coming through, and I said, ‘Lemme click the last button and see what I was sending emails [about] back in the day,’” he recalled to Us. “It was all the audition information and going to Hollywood and here’s what you need to do for this. … It was all the itineraries. Even last night I was like, ‘Man, pretty crazy how time flies.’”

Life certainly has changed for the singer since competing alongside Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart.

He married Gabi Dugal in 2018 and welcomed son Avery in 2022. More recently, the couple announced in May that they are expecting baby No. 2.

“It’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me for sure,” McCreery said about his new chapter as a dad. “He’s already two and a half and running around and he’s talking a mile a minute. It’s just so fun watching him grow. Having two is gonna be insane. … It’s the coolest, best thing I’ve ever done is being a dad.”

When he’s not playing soccer with his son or strawberry picking with the family, McCreery can likely be found on the road or recording new music.

In the middle of his latest tour, the country singer teamed up with Hootie & the Blowfish for a new collaboration titled “Bottle Rockets.”

The track was inspired by the soundtracks of summer and features snippets of one of McCreery’s favorite songs from Daris Rucker and his band.

“If you’re a Hootie & the Blowfish fan, I think you might love this song,” he teased to Us. “I grew up loving Hootie & the Blowfish, and we wrote this song with him in mind. It’s called ‘Bottle Rockets,’ but if you listen through it, you might hear a familiar voice and Darius Rucker and the rest of the band getting in there to join us. This was a lot of fun, something different for ’em, but we’ve never really done a song like this. It turned out pretty cool.”