Scotty McCreery has something to be extra thankful for this year. The 18-year-old ‘American Idol’-winner-turned-country-superstar announced on Wednesday, Nov. 23, that his debut album, ‘Clear as Day,’ has reached gold status.

The album, which made its entrance on Oct. 4, has sold more than 500,000 copies — 197,000 in the first week alone. The high sales gave McCreery his first No. 1 and first gold album, which is nothing to scoff at for a young newcomer.

The singer tweeted this morning, “well, we got to the today show too late to see biebs.. haha. bout to head up to do the interview tho. yall tune in for some big news on CAD!” . He was joking that he wanted to catch a glimpse of Justin Bieber while visiting the ‘Today’ show this morning. An hour later, McCreery made the big reveal to his followers who missed his appearance, saying, “a lot of yall found out early but I wanted to wait till the today show to announce it! Clear As Day went GOLD! thank yall sooo much!”

McCreery will continue to show his gratitude on Thursday, when he appears in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade alongside Rodney Atkins, Cee Lo Green, Avril Lavigne and more. “I’ve always watched it every year, and now they invited me to be in it. It will be surreal and cold!” the rising star told Taste of Country of the honor. “They have me on a float. I’ll be singing and it’s just kind of a nice, simple thing. It’ll just be cool to be up there and see everybody out there.”

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