Scotty McCreery found himself in a state of shock back in May.

His Uncle Mark, who appeared to be in good health, ended up in the hospital, battling for his life. During those trying days, the family would play McCreery's almost-completed new album Same Truck to bring some levity to the cold and desolate chamber. However, the 61-year-old man, who had spent his life designing race car engines, remained largely unresponsive.

That is, until "How Ya Doin' Up There" started playing.

"He hadn't talked or moved in a while, but that day he kind of lifted his fist up as soon as he heard the song," McCreery, says of the moving tune he co-wrote with Monty Criswell, Derek George, and Tyler Reeve. "It just showed me again how special that song is."

McCreery's Uncle Mark passed away in June, nearly four months before his new album was set to be released. But, in the end, the song now lives on Same Truck, and it serves as yet another testament of McCreery's faith, which has pervaded not only his life, but his music since he defeated Lauren Alaina for the top spot on American Idol in 2011.

"I lean on faith on a daily basis," he admits quietly. "With the chaos of the world, I've definitely had to draw on it a lot in the last year and a half."

Indeed, the world's craziness prompted the multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter to completely rethink and partially redo his fifth studio album, the majority of which had been completed prior to the pandemic's devastation.

"I had a lot of outside cuts the first time around," recalls the North Carolina native, who now has 12 tracks on his new album, 10 of which he wrote himself. "But then the world stopped working, and all I had time to do was sit there and strum ideas and create songs."

He went on to write those songs with a new sense of confidence, having reached a stage with his 2018 RIAA gold-certified album Seasons Change when he wasn't feeling the need to prove himself with every note. Indeed, chart-topping songs like "Five More Minutes," "This Is It," and the gold-certified "In Between" appeared to solidify McCreery's status as a future country music legend.

"I just felt like for the first time in my life, I was comfortable expressing those thoughts and letting people know who I was as a guy and as an artist and not shying away from it," says McCreery, whose current single "You Time" appears to be on its way to No. 1 on the country music charts. "That seems to have resonated with people. It's something I'm going to attempt to do more of in the future, writing from a personal perspective and telling stories like we do in country music."