McCreery achieves Platinum

"It means the world to me," he said Tuesday. "It's one of the highest honors you can get with your album, and it's a huge testament to the loyalty of country music fans and how great they have been to me this year. 2011 was absolutely an incredible, life-changing year for me. I want to say a huge thanks to the fans for this."

The release debuted at number 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 sales of any country solo album released last year. "Clear As Day" was first on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart for six weeks. The first single, I Love You This Big, was also certified gold.

The album, which was released Oct. 4, was certified Gold for sales of 500,000 in November. The Platinum certification followed about seven weeks later.

"Never in a million years did I dream that the album would go platinum in three months," he said. "Never in a million years did I dream that the album would go platinum. It's wild. It's going to take me a few months or years to really wrap my head around it."

On Thursday, he begins his first country music tour when he joins Brad Paisley's "Virtual Reality Tour 2012" The tour, which also features the Band Perry, kicks off in Grand Rapids, Mich.