Scotty McCreery masked his feelings for album cover shoot: “I was putting on a smile but I was freezing inside”

If you saw Scotty McCreery‘s Rise & Fall album cover and wondered why he’s on a mountaintop, there’s a beautiful story behind that.

The spot where Scotty is sitting is where he proposed to his now-wife, Gabi. It is also near where the North Carolina native conceptualized Rise & Fall with his songwriting buddies.

“If you look on the album cover, the mountain that’s out in the background, if you just go over that mountain, that’s where the whole album was written, kind of on that side. Those North Carolina mountains, the Linville area, is just a special, special place to me and Gabi. That mountain, that rock where I’m standing is where I proposed to Gabi,” Scotty explains.

“It’s called the Little Lost Cove Cliffs Trails. [There’s] just a lot of significance to making this album there, to starting our life together there on that same rock,” says the “Cab in a Solo” singer.

Now, Scotty may have looked calm and collected on the album cover, but his real feelings were far from what was portrayed.

“It was like peak season where the leaves were changing [on] the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it was really pretty. It was also extremely cold and windy, so I was putting on a smile but I was freezing inside,” Scotty reveals.

“I don’t think my team wants to do a mile hike up to the rock for the next album shoot, I bet we’ll just do a green screen or just stay at home,” he adds with jest. “But it was a fun album shoot for sure.”

Rise & Fall is out now wherever you listen to music.

Here’s the full track list for Rise & Fall:

“Little More Gone”
“Cab in a Solo”
“Lonely”
“Can’t Pass the Bar”
“Hey Rose”
“Fall of Summer”
“Love Like This”
“Slow Dance”
“No Country for Old Men”
“And Countin'”
“Stuck Behind a Tractor”
“Red Letter Blueprint”
“Porch”