(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

"It was tough at first," Scotty McCreery told me. "I mean, for 17 years of your life you live every day at home -- and you see your friends every single day -- and then all of a sudden, poof, you're on the road and don't see them for five months at a time."

That's what he admitted to me last night (June 17) when he was in Chicago to headline his own show at the House of Blues. I was asking what he missed most about home when he was out on the road, and it came down to the people.

But when he's at home, he really misses the performing: "I'm in a catch-22. Sometimes I miss my friends, but then when I'm with my friends I miss the performing. We are still trying to find that balance."

He said the touring he's doing now allows him to play a string of dates, then usually catch a red-eye flight home in time for church on Sunday. "Right now we're heavy on performing and it's cool by me. I love it," he said about road life.

And while he said he loved the studio process when he was in the thick of recording his debut album, now he's hooked on the live thing. "I love getting in front of the fans," he said. "Especially the ones who voted me through on Idol."