Scotty McCreery has been performing the personal song "Five More Minutes" for about a year for now -- and with new music in the works, he hints that the tune might just be his next one to hit the airwaves.

Written for his grandfather, two weeks after he passed away in January of 2015, McCreery tells The Boot that "Five More Minutes" is "really about life, and the moments we all wish we could back to -- not re-do, but more so just re-live -- spend some more time with folks."

"It’s a song that’s really personal for me," McCreery confesses. "The fans have responded more than any other song I’ve ever put out; they’ve been incredible. We’ve got it on YouTube, and it’s got more than 1.2 million views, and it’s not even released. We’re like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ but we’re real excited about it ...

"As far as I’m concerned, that’s the next single," he continues. "It should be out January or February of next year. I’m excited for the fans to finally be able to get it on their phones and the radio and all that stuff."

McCreery announced in February that he was no longer with Mercury Nashville / Interscope, the label with which the North Carolina native signed after winning Season 10 of American Idol in 2011. He's been dealing with legal issues and red tape in the months since but, he says, will soon have some good news to share.

"It’s been a heck of a year," McCreery admits. "You always hear about the Idol contracts and stuff ... We’re still dealing with it all, so we haven’t gotten totally released yet, but ... we’ve got a few people in the back rooms who are kind of waiting on it all. So once it all breaks, we’ll be rocking and rolling -- just waiting on one of those Idol signatures."

Not one to waste time, McCreery hasn't released any new music, but he has been busy: The singer recently penned his autobiography, Go Big or Go Home: The Journey Toward the Dream, which was released earlier this year.

"The book was an unexpected surprise for me," McCreery shares. "I wasn’t ever going to think of myself as an author growing up, but they presented myself with the opportunity, and we jumped on it.

"It exceeded all expectations. For a 23-year-old to be able to write a book, people really dove in and read it. Every meet and greet now, they’re telling me, ‘Hey, can you sign page 202 or something? … That’s my favorite story,’" he adds. "Hopefully it helped some folks, and they got something out of it."

Although McCreery couldn't have planned the way things would work out for him in the last year, he's grateful for every opportunity, and eagerly anticipating his next chapter.

"It will be centered around music, 2017, which is what I love, and I can’t wait," McCreery says. "I’ve had some good songs come out of this year ... I’ve had a lot more ideas that I haven’t even put pen to paper just yet. I can’t wait to see what all comes out of it.

"It’s going to be fun to look down on this down the road and go, ‘Look what came out of something like this,'" he concludes.

McCreery will spend much of the next few months on the road. A list of all of his upcoming shows is available on his website.

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