Scotty McCreery's newly-released single, "Southern Belle," is a big musical departure for him, but the singer wants to assure his fans that he hasn't fundamentally changed who he is as an artist.

The song moves the 21-year-old singer further away from the traditional side of country music and more toward pop, and though it's certainly not terribly racy, it contains some more mature themes than his previous releases. The devout Christian acknowledges that it's a different side to him than he's previously revealed in public.

"This is probably about as far left as we'll go," McCreery tells Rolling Stone Country. "When my producer [Frank Rogers] heard it, he said, 'I think we can Scottify this.' There was one [reference to] hell that we changed."

The American Idol winner says that his upcoming album, for which he worked with some of the top songwriters in Nashville, will give his fans an opportunity at a clearer picture of who he really is.

"I'm an old soul," he states. "What makes me different is that I'm normal when so many things are crazy out there. I'm just an average Joe that loves to play country music and play baseball. I try to translate that through my music."

There's another song on the forthcoming project that exemplifies that, titled "In Between." McCreery wrote the song in response to his discomfort with how some fans see him as a "holier than thou guy."

"I am human; I make mistakes. And I like to have fun. I'm just a regular guy," he says. "The [co-writers] said, 'Yeah, you are not a holier than though guy and you're not a party guy. You're in between.' So we just ran with it."

McCreery has not yet revealed the title or release date for his next album.

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