America Idol Scotty McCreery Graduates From High School

He will return to Nashville today for the 2012 CMA Music Festival, where he will sign autographs, hold his first fan club party and perform Sunday at LP Field during the CMA Music Festival's Nightly Concerts.

On Wednesday, he won the USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year for "The Trouble With Girls" at the 2012 CMT Music Awards.

"I was pumped!" says Scotty, who also performed "Water Tower Town" during the CMT Music Awards. "It's a fun awards show. You come here just looking for a great time, so that award just added to a great night."

Wednesday marked his first anniversary of coming to Nashville to meet with his new Mercury Nashville/19 Recordings/Interscope family for the first time and attend the 2011 CMT Music Awards, the first country music awards show he ever attended. "This was my first awards show ever, so it was exciting to be nominated and it's incredible to actually take home the award," he says.

The video for "The Trouble With Girls" was shot at Garner Magnet High School and directed by Roman White. "I love the video because it's real for me," he says. "Those are my real friends and my real high school. It was really special to shoot."

After winning the award, he flew home to North Carolina Wednesday night so that he could graduate this morning with his class. He graduated with distinguished honors.

"It's been a good four years in high school," he says. "I've gone a lot of places that I never thought I'd go and done a lot of things I never dreamed I'd do. This is bittersweet, but I'm really excited to spend the day with my friends and move on to the next stage in life."

During his senior year, he earned a platinum debut album, two gold singles and two new artist awards in addition to serving as as pitcher for his high school's baseball team.