Scotty McCreery may be longing for a little “you time” in his newest single, but his nearly non-existent tour schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic has meant he and his wife Gabi have gotten plenty of it in recent months. They’ve enjoyed each other’s company, spoiled their dog Moose — and, the country star says, picked up a new obsession.
What’s been getting the couple through the downtime? Bananagrams, apparently — yes, the Scrabble-like game that comes in a yellow, banana-shaped pouch.
“Her family’s where we got that game from,” McCreery shares in a newly released video from backstage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, “and I’m lovin’ it.
“[Gabi’s] probably ready for me to get back on the road at some points,” McCreery adds with a hint of humor in his voice.
McCreery recently had to take a break from the board games for a show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. He was the final artist to play the historic venue pre-pandemic, and in September, he was the first artist to get back onstage there, with a small, socially distanced and masked audience with him in person and even more fans watching from home.
“If you want to get to know country music, you should start with the Ryman Auditorium. I mean, the history here here …,” McCreery reflects. “I’m looking at a wall with all these names, and … I just saw mine and I was like, ‘Holy cow, I’m on the same wall [as] Willie Nelson and Garth [Brooks].”
McCreery first played the Ryman, he remembers, in the early 2010s, shortly after he won American Idol. “I just knew that all my heroes had played here, and it was so special,” he recalls of that night.
“Everybody’s played here, so you feel that,” McCreery notes of the Ryman’s storied history, which dates back to the late 1800s. “You feel the ghosts of country music past.”
Press play above to go behind the scenes at McCreery’s September 2020 Ryman Auditorium show.
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