“It’s huge!” Scotty says of his first gold album. “Every artist dreams of a gold album and works hard for it, so it’s a major accomplishment to have your debut album go gold. This is just incredible.

“I want to thank the fans,” he says. “This is a testament to how great the fans are.”

Clear As Day debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts, making him the youngest man in history to open at the top of the all-genre chart with a debut release. It also garnered the highest first-week sales of any solo country artist this year, behind only Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night.

The album’s first single, “I Love You This Big,” has also been certified as a gold digital single by the RIAA.

Scotty will perform his current hit, ‘The Trouble With Girls,” on the American Country Awards, which airs live on Fox tonight at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT and he will be joining Brad Paisley’s 2012 tour that begins January 12 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.