Scotty McCreery Reveals the Most Starstruck He’s Ever Been

Scotty McCreery has met a whole lot of celebrities during his career, but there’s one person who truly rendered the American Idol winner starstruck. During a recent interview with Audacy’s Katie & Company, McCreery opened up about a few of his most famous encounters, all of which would leave any fan wide-eyed.

“The thing with me, I’m still such a fan of all these artists,” he explained. “So, yes, I’m in the same industry, I guess, with them, but any time you catch me around Garth Brooks I’m kind of stumbling over my words. I remember the first time I met George Strait, it’s like I couldn’t speak. But probably the most starstruck I’ve ever been [was] meeting Dolly Parton for the first time. Somebody captured a picture of it too, and you can just see like, the twinkle in my eye and the grin I had. That was quite a moment for me, I’m not even sure what I said, it probably didn’t even make sense, but that was pretty spectacular.”

That meeting appears to have taken place at the 2016 ACM Awards in Las Vegas, which McCreery documented on his Instagram at the time with a photo of himself and Parton sharing a handshake and a smile on the red carpet. “I’m gonna go ahead and say my night was better than your night,” his caption read. “Simply bc of this moment.”

“Talk about feeling like you know somebody,” the 27-year-old told Audacy’s Katie Neal while reflecting on the duo’s first meeting. “[Parton] is the queen, as big as it gets, but it feels like she should be at your Thanksgiving table every year, just how sweet she is. That was a cool moment.”

McCreery undoubtedly sparks the same reaction in some of his own fans, though he shared that he occasionally gets mistaken for another Idol alum. “It is what it is, I guess I get it, because I still live in North Carolina, I’m here in Raleigh, and this guy also lived in North Carolina in Raleigh and he did American Idol,” McCreery said. “I get the Clay Aiken thing more often than not. If I’m around my buddies, they lose it, they’re rolling. That one gets me for sure.”