Scotty McCreery Dedicates Opry Performance of ‘Five More Minutes’ to Charley Pride

Scotty McCreery was one of the performers at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday, Dec. 12, and the 27-year-old used his set to honor Charley Pride, who had died earlier that day. McCreery dedicated his performance of his song “Five More Minutes” to Pride, starting at around 34:25 in the video above.

“It is always a special night getting to play the Grand Ole Opry, so many great memories here. So many great artists have come here before me and one of those that I’ve always been such a big fan of we lost today, Mr. Charley Pride,” he told the crowd. “That guy, he was always such a joy to talk to backstage and he always made you feel like you’re the only one in the room. Just the nicest guy, we talked baseball, just music, everything. So tonight, we’re gonna play ‘Five More Minutes,’ which I wrote for my Granddaddy Bill, but tonight, this song is going to go out to Mr. Charley Pride, y’all.”

Pride died at age 86 due to complications from COVID-19 after being hospitalized in November. After his death was announced, McCreery shared a photo of himself with Pride on Instagram, writing, “Rest in peace, Charley Pride. A true legend and trailblazer.”

“Five More Minutes” was released as the lead single from McCreery’s fourth studio album Seasons Change and became his first No. 1 song. The emotional song is all about wanting to spend five more minutes with a late loved one, and McCreery wrote it alongside Frank Rogers and Monty Criswell in 2015 shortly after the death of his grandfather.

“My favorite thing about ‘Five More Minutes’ is that it’s really a storyteller song,” he told The Boot. “To me, country music is real people singing about real-life things. To me, that’s what ‘Five More Minutes’ is: It’s a song about real-life things.”

The American Idol winner added that he knew the song was special when he began playing it in concert. “When we wrote this song, I tweeted out, when I left Frank’s house, that I just wrote my favorite song that I’ve ever written,” he recalled. “I was hoping it would be a single, but I wasn’t entirely sure until things like the Opry happened and we got the standing ovation and people started requesting it. I knew it was a special song when we wrote it, but I wasn’t sure it was a single until we started playing it live.”