Scotty McCreery set to tour with Brad Paisley in 2012

Talk about a vote of confidence!

Just a week before the release of Scotty McCreery’s debut album, Clear As Day, country superstar Brad Paisley has announced that the American Idol winner will be joining him on the road in 2012.

On Sunday, as part of an encore performance during the final show on his H2O II: Wetter & Wilder World Tour, Paisley surprised audiences by bringing McCreery out on stage with him. “Do you want to go on tour with me?” he asked. When the North Carolina-native nodded “Yes,” Paisley responded, “Great, I’m going to take you out next year!” and later tweeted the above photo of the pair.

Details on the tour will be released soon, but it’s safe to say that McCreery is already excited about it. “it’s really humbling that somebody like him would invite me to tour w/ him,” he tweeted. “I just hope i’m ready for any pranks he throws my way.”

While it remains to be seen whether Scotty will enjoy true career longevity, the deep-voiced country crooner has certainly gotten off to a good start. Since Idol wrapped, his exclusive Wal-Mart disc, American Idol Season 10: Scotty McCreery EP, has sold 185,000 copies, and his coronation single “I Love You This Big,” reached number 15 on Billboard‘s Country Songs chart.

On top of that, this summer’s American Idols Live Tour proved extremely successful, selling out — or almost selling out — nearly every arena it visited. (That’s a big step up from Season 9’s tour, which only played to about 60 percent capacity.)

Are you ready for McPaisley? Will you be buying tickets to the show? And what do you think Paisley’s decision to tour with the young star says about McCreery’s future in country music?

Jason Aldean’s gorgeous, patriotic ‘Tattoos On This Town’ video: Watch it here

Kid Rock’s album ‘Born Free’ goes platinum after 44 weeks: What albums took longer?