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Post by Kim on Apr 30, 2011 17:56:42 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney Surpasses Lady Gaga in Ticket Sales
Apr 29th 2011 by Gayle Thompson theboot.com
Kenny Chesney notably took 2010 off from the road, and now only a little more than a month into his Goin' Coastal tour, fans have made it clear that he was missed.
The country superstar scored the highest-grossing tour last week, according to Billboard, bringing in more than $6.5 million in revenue. His impressive earnings top No. 2 ranked Lady Gaga by almost $1 million. The Allman Brothers Band came in third, with more than $3.5 million. Neil Young places a distant fourth, with just over $680,000, and Widespread Panic came in fifth, earning just slightly less than Neil.
The Zac Brown Band and Blake Shelton both had impressive showings for last week, as well. ZBB landed the eighth highest-grossing tour, with nearly $450,000, while Blake earned just more than $280,000.
Kenny's soaring income for last week is due in part to performing the second of his nine stadium shows schedule. 'The Boys of Fall' singer performed at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on April 16, raking in more than $4 million for the show. The Zac Brown Band, Billy Currington and Uncle Kracker all joined him for the night, entertaining the crowd of 46,551 fans.
The Goin' Coastal tour continues tonight (April 29), with a show in Mountain View, Calif. Kenny will head south to Indio, Calif. tomorrow night to perform at the Stagecoach Festival.
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Post by Kim on May 26, 2011 17:25:17 GMT -5
Mallrat
Kenny Chesney talks on the Boss, writing and sports
Monday, May 2, 2011 – By Dan MacIntosh
Kenny Chesney appeared informal and relaxed during his interview Thursday with GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Robert Sanetelli in Los Angeles. Although the Lakers weren't playing at the nearby Staples Center, there was still a sports-enthusiast-turned-musician in the house, there to talk about his music, his life and a little sports.
Chesney admitted at The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live, "I wanted to be a baseball player," from the outset. There, in front of a small crowd of fans and media, Sanetelli took us through some of the key events in Chesney's life. His first musical memories included the sound of mom singing, as well as singing in church. However, when Chesney heard The Eagles' vocal harmonies on Take It to the Limit, his ears perked up like they never had before. Surprisingly, Chesney didn't pick up the guitar until he was already a junior in college. Once he'd mastered a few chords and could play some favorite songs, he was hooked.
One of the key revelations that came out tonight was the relationship Chesney has with Bruce Springsteen. Chesney loves the Boss because he is "a sucker for the truth," and singer/songwriters oftentimes have a special knack for getting right to the truth. One time, Chesney shared with Springsteen how frustrating it can be to start a song and not finish it until long after starting it. Springsteen reminded Chesney that songs can wait, but you have to live your life right now.
Later, Chesney sounded just like a fan when he described how Springsteen once made a surprise visit to his band bus while he was on tour. He also shared a story about how Springsteen and band took a train - with all their gear - from New Jersey to New Orleans for just one show. Such dedication to the fans obviously impresses Chesney.
Although Chesney loves the creative process of being a songwriter, he told this gathering, "I gotta work hard at it." He also said that it's tough to write on the road; he needs to be in a place where he can solely focus on writing. One exception to the rule was the song I Go Back, which Chesney wrote while driving through Colorado.
This evening was promoted as an interview-only occasion, although Chesney still rewarded attendees with a little singing. With just an acoustic guitar, he performed You and Tequila, but admitted it sounds much better with Grace Potter singing on it. He also sang a little bit of Old Blue Chair.
When Chesney is performing on a regular concert stage, he sometimes comes off a little cocky. Maybe that's just the athlete in him. However, when simply talking, the man comes off much more humble and likable. Tonight, it was a treat to get to know the real Kenny Chesney a little bit better.
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Post by Kim on May 26, 2011 17:26:06 GMT -5
Mallrat
Chesney gets a bargain
Monday, May 16, 2011 – Kenny Chesney and fans got more than they bargained for Saturday night in Lexington, Ky.
After weeks of under-the-radar-preparation, when Chesney took the stage, a bus with a special guest pulled into the backstage parking area. So, halfway into the show, just before an acoustic part of the set, friend George Jones walked on stage. As the crowd cheered, Chesney was unaware that Jones was walking towards him. And just as he turned around, Jones met him mid-stage to a completely shocked Chesney.
As the band breaks into I Don't Need Your Rocking Chair, Chesney realized that everyone was already in on the surprise. After the song, Chesney asked Jones to stay and sing the He Stopped Loving Her Today.
Chesney said, "There's nothing like sharing the stage with your heroes and when George walked on stage in Lexington it was one of the biggest thrills of my life. He means so much to so many and it meant the world to me that he came to the show."
Chesney and Jones have been friends for years and Chesney's current album, "Hemingway's Whiskey," features the two on the Bobby Braddock song, Small Y'all, a song that Chesney has loved for years. Chesney said, "George recorded this song first, and I've had his version in my car for years. It puts me in a good mood instantly. When we decided to record it for the album, it was a no-brainer to call George and ask him to be apart of it, and when he comes in on the song, it's just, it's so special, cause I love the guy. He's been a part of my life for a while, and he's obviously a hero and somebody who inspires me and somebody who means a lot to the world of music."
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Post by Mallrat on Jun 8, 2011 16:52:42 GMT -5
BMI Tips Its Hat to Writers of Kenny Chesney’s No. 1 “Live a Little”
06/3/11, 2:30 pm EDT
Although Kenny Chesney wasn't there to join in the revelry, BMI threw a party at its Nashville headquarters Thursday (June 2) to pay tribute to the writers of his latest No. 1 single, "Live a Little." The honorees were BMI's Shane Minor and ASCAP's David Lee Murphy. BMI's Clay Bradley pointed out it was Murphy's second No. 1 celebration within the past four weeks, the other being for co-authoring Thompson Square's "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not." It was also his second chart-topper for Chesney. His first was "Living in Fast Forward" in 2006. Bradley noted as well that this was Minor's fifth No. 1 song of his career. Both Minor and Murphy are former recording artists themselves -- Minor for Mercury and Murphy for MCA. Of Chesney's impact on songwriters, Bradley observed, "We all know that when he records one of your songs, it changes your life -- literally." Alluding to the singer's affinity for tropical themes, record producer Buddy Cannon drawled, "I'm just glad the song didn't say anything about the beach."
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Post by Mallrat on Jun 11, 2011 16:49:40 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney Explains How He Became “Kenny Chesney”
06/8/11, 4:00 pm EDT
"I really didn't think about until I was in college," Kenny Chesney told attendees Tuesday (June 7) at the Billboard Country Music Summit in Nashville.
For more than an hour, Chesney answered questions posed to him by Billboard's Ray Waddell, who noted at the outset that the superstar sells "more than a million tickets every time he goes out on tour."
Raised in the small town of Luttrell in eastern Tennessee -- the home of Chet Atkins -- Chesney said he grew up surrounded by musicians and singers, among them his mother and her twin sister who sometimes performed on the Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour, a radio and TV show in Knoxville.
Although he sang at home and in church, Chesney said it wasn't until he was attending Eastern Tennessee State University that he considered making a life in music. He said he wrote his first song in a "persuasion class" to persuade a girl in the class to go out with him. It didn't work, he added.
He moved to Nashville on Jan. 13, 1991, he recalled.
"I had nothing to do," he admitted. "I knew no one. Then I met a few songwriters."
For most hopefuls who come to Nashville, that's about as far as it goes. But Chesney said he had the good fortune of meeting BMI executive Clay Bradley, who listened to his songs, heard something in them and referred him to the mighty Acuff-Rose publishing company.
Chesney played a few of his songs -- including "The Tin Man," which would become his second charted single -- and the company signed him to a songwriting contract.
"That's when my life started in this town," he said. "All of a sudden, I wasn't outside. I was writing with some of the best writers in the world."
Beginning in 1993, he had a short run as an artist on Capricorn Records, a rock label that was trying to gain a country music presence. That affiliation didn't make him a star, but it was enough to attract the attention of BNA Records, an RCA subsidiary. He's been there since 1995.
"I had the luxury of not happening early," Chesney said. He likened his brief tenure at Capricorn to playing Triple A baseball.
Asked who gave him the best advice early in his career, Chesney cited Jim Vienneau at Acuff-Rose, who urged him to write every day; his first producer Barry Beckett, who warned him not to "over-sing" (a habit he'd acquired singing in bars) and advised him to "put a smile" in his voice; and his manager Dale Morris, who took him to a record store, gestured toward the vast displays of albums and said, "This is what you have to compete with."
As a touring act, Chesney said, he's also learned he's not just competing with other artists but also against sports, movies and "life."
He acknowledged he was one of the many male country artists of the 1990s who began their careers by trying to sound like George Strait. He dated his artistic independence from the moment he abandoned that aim.
At times, Chesney sounded like a latter-day Ben Franklin, the Founding Father who may have been America's first self-improvement guru.
Chesney said that one night he wrote down a list of 30 things he could do to make his life and career better and began implementing the list the next day.
As a headlining entertainer who tours with several opening acts, Chesney said he has always tried to offer fans the best package of talent possible for the least possible ticket cost.
He likened connecting with his audiences to an "out-of-body experience" and said that at each stadium he performs in, he hikes up to the most distant seat to get an idea of what the stage looks like from that point of view.
He explained he didn't tour last year because he didn't want to reach the point where he felt like he was "mailing in" his performances. He emphasized he didn't feel he had reached that point but said the mere fact that the thought occurred to him was a warning signal.
The prospect of not touring for a year and possibly losing his fan base scared him, he confessed.
"What if they're not out there when I get back?" he said.
In retrospect, he said the decision to take a timeout "allowed [him] to make everything about the show better."
Chesney is currently in the early stages of his Goin' Coastal tour.
Waddell asked if there were achievements Chesney still aspired to.
"It would hurt me to know that I've written my best song," the 43-year-old star replied, "or been the best onstage yet."
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Post by Kim on Jul 1, 2011 9:12:14 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney Named 'Fittest Man in Country Music'Jun 30th 2011 by Cory Stromblad theboot.com Kenny Chesney has been named "Fittest Man in Country Music" by Men's Health magazine. The country music superstar dishes with the publication about his efforts to keep a routine workout schedule, despite the demands of life on the road. "You'd be amazed at what you can do in a short amount of time to get a burn in, to feel healthier, to feel like you're not staying the same," says the touring troubadour, regarding his sometimes limited workout time. Kenny's main reason for maintaining his toned physique has a lot to do with why he's a four-time CMA Entertainer of the Year. "I have to train to do my show the way I want to do it," Kenny confesses. "I'm not one of these guys that just stands there behind the microphone. I work really hard to give the fans the best possible concert." Click here to read the full Men's Health article with more of Kenny's fitness tips.
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Post by Mallrat on Jul 10, 2011 21:17:26 GMT -5
OFFSTAGE: Kenny Chesney Can Do 300 Pushups in 10 Minutes
07/5/11, 1:30 pm EDT
(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)
You may want to grab a Gatorade before you read this. Because just hearing about Kenny Chesney's workout is exhausting. I mean, come on. I've never even heard of half these exercises. Squat thrusts? Explosive pushups? Crouching single-leg squats? Plank walkup to pushup? And then there is the fact that he can do it all so damn fast. Men's Health magazine says Chesney can do 300 pushups in 10 minutes. "You'd be amazed at what you can do in a short amount of time to get a burn in, to feel healthier, to feel like you're not staying the same," he says. The result, as we all know, is a trim and toned and very high-energy Chesney. Which makes him look sexy in his faded Levi's, but it also makes his shows that much better. "I'm not one of these guys that just stands there behind the microphone," he told the magazine.
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Post by josweetheart on Jul 10, 2011 22:28:30 GMT -5
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Post by josweetheart on Feb 16, 2012 2:21:01 GMT -5
Go here and here for some rather alarming news concerning Kenny. God bless him always!!! Holly
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Post by josweetheart on Mar 27, 2012 8:19:26 GMT -5
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Post by Kim on Apr 6, 2012 10:17:17 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney, 'Welcome to the Fishbowl' Album Title ExplainedBNA Records Kenny Chesney's next album, as recently revealed, is titled 'Welcome to the Fishbowl' and will be released on June 19. But where did the title come from? Kenny explains that the title stems from an experience with some of his football-playing buddies at the Red Bar, a beach hangout in Grayton Beach, Fla., and the constant stream of fans he encountered once they arrived there. "We walked in, and it was packed," Kenny explains (quote via USA Today). "There was about 20 minutes of people coming up, saying hello, wanting to get something signed. After that died down, one of those guys said, 'I didn't realize your life was like this.' I said, 'Hey, man, welcome to the fishbowl.' As soon as I said it, I realized that I was going to write a song about how our world and our culture is shrinking." The song, which Kenny adds isn't solely about the perils of being famous, doesn't let his fellow celebrities off the hook, necessarily. "In fact, at the end of the song I speak to celebrities and say, 'You asked for this,'" he notes. "But you don't have to be in the public eye for your business to be everybody's business. And that's just the way it is." Kenny also says that he had a talk with songwriter Matraca Berg, co-writer of the award-winning hit 'You and Tequila,' who told him that at this point in his career he was able to cut great songs but could also record songs to fill football stadiums. "That's what I'm enjoying about this part in my career," he says, "and the new album's going to show that even more. Not a lot of artists, especially if they're as mainstream as me, have that freedom." With their ACM Awards show performance behind them, Kenny and his Brothers of the Sun tourmate Tim McGraw are beginning rehearsals for the trek, which kicks off June 2 in Tampa. Fans can expect to hear at least three songs from the new album at each show. "I try to fill my sets full of songs that everybody lives with every day," says the superstar. "To play a new song in a stadium, you might lose people. They might tune out for three minutes. But I'm at a point in my life where I want to play them new music. I want them to know we might do 'Fishbowl' and a couple more." 'Welcome to the Fishbowl' is Kenny Chesney's 13th studio album. 'Welcome to the Fishbowl' Track Listing: 1. 'Come Over' 2. 'Feel Like a Rock Star' (With Tim McGraw) 3. 'Sing 'Em Good My Friend' 4. 'Welcome to the Fishbowl' 5. 'I'm a Small Town' 6. 'El Cerrito Place' 7. 'Makes Me Wonder' 8. 'While He Still Knows Who I Am' 9. 'Time Flies 10. 'To Get to You (55th and 3rd)' 11. 'Always Gonna Be You' 12. 'You and Tequila' (Live With Grace Potter)
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Post by Kim on May 19, 2012 7:58:39 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney Insists That No Drugs, Smoking or Salt Does His Body Good
Ever wonder how Kenny Chesney maintains his fit physique? According to his June cover story with Men’s Health magazine, the 44-year old credits simple respect for his body as his motivation to remain in the best physical condition of his life. “I’ve never abused my body with drugs,” Chesney admits. “I’ve never smoked. But I will say that I’ve probably been overserved a lot. You can’t spend 19 years on the road and not have a few drinks.” Spirits aside, the singer never picks up the salt shaker — at least in the past 10 years — and hasn’t even had bread “in a while.”
How does the entertainer balance his demanding life on the road? Chesney relies on his trainer, Daniel Meng of MUV Fitness Coaching in Nashville, Tenn., to keep his gym workout rigorous and regimented. “It’s a very intense workout routine usually reserved for athletes,” Meng says. “But Kenny has a certain standard he holds himself to when putting on a show, and it’s my job to get him there.”
“You think you’re sprinting on this treadmill,” says Chesney, referring to his high-energy two-hour concerts. “When I’m up there it’s like I’m at a constant sprint at a 15 level. But the thing you have onstage that you don’t have in the gym is adrenaline.”
Despite the results, the ‘Come Over’ singer confesses his efforts are more about an improved state of mind. ”I don’t go in here and try to bench-press 200 pounds,” confesses Chesney. (He can do 300 pushups in 10 minutes, though.)
It seems as though the singer will be beyond physically — and mentally — prepared for his upcoming Brothers of the Sun Tour with Tim McGraw. The stadium outing kicks off in Tampa, Fla. on June 2 and runs for 19 days. His new ‘Welcome to the Fishbowl’ album will be on the shelves on June 19.
Before then, you can pick up the June issue of Men’s Health with Chesney on the cover — it hits newsstands on May 22.
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Post by Kim on May 19, 2012 8:11:40 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney Expands His Band Prior to Brothers of the Sun Tour Kickoff
Kenny Chesney is gearing up to head back out on the road on his first major stadium run since last summer’s Goin’ Coastal Tour. Not only is he sharing the stage with his fellow country music superstar Tim McGraw, but also famed Nashville musician Kenny Greenberg.
Greenberg is the Academy of Country Music’s 2012 Guitarist of the Year and a veteran session musician in Music City who has previously collaborated with Bob Seger, Willie Nelson and Etta James. The legendary guitarist has frequently worked with Chesney on past musical projects, including the singer’s forthcoming new album ‘Welcome to the Fishbowl’ (in stores June 19) and his previous album, ‘Hemingway’s Whiskey.’
“Kenny is one of the best guitarists out there today, period,” Chesney says of his fellow Kenny, Greenberg. “He’s been a great friend and collaborator over the years, right through ‘Welcome to the Fishbowl,’ and it’s going to be amazing to have him at the party each night this summer.”
Greenberg will join Chesney’s already solid band of musicians, which includes Wyatt Beard (keyboards), Sean Paddock (drums), Steve Marshall (bass), Clayton Mitchell (guitar), Jim Bob Gairrett (steel guitar) and Jon Conley (guitar/fiddle).
The highly-anticipated Brothers of the Sun Tour, also featuring Jake Owen and Grace Potter, is set to kick off on June 2 in Tampa, Fla.
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Post by josweetheart on May 30, 2012 16:25:04 GMT -5
Go here for news about a song that is to be on Kenny's next album. God bless him always!!! Holly
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Post by Kim on Jun 17, 2012 20:52:42 GMT -5
Kenny Chesney reconnects with life
Kenny Chesney chuckles quietly, a little sadly, at the nagging irony.
He’s Nashville music’s biggest ticket-seller of the new century, a performer whose chief attribute is his ability to make cheap-seaters in the last row of a massive football stadium feel connected and involved. Those people cheer for him, sing with him, sway with him. They know him.
And yet he’d noticed himself pulling away from the people who should be most meaningful in his life. He had a way of making those folks — the parents he saw less frequently, the grandmother who missed him on Easter Sunday — feel disconnected and uninvolved. Those people nurtured him, defended him, supported him. And he felt as if in some ways they didn’t know him. At least not as well as they should, or as they once had.
“In the last 10 years of my life, the people I was closest to, I’ve also had this indefinable sense of disconnect with,” he says, in the midst of explaining his reasons for recording a song of reconciliation called “While He Still Knows Who I Am” for new album Welcome to the Fishbowl.
“The guy in the song is trying to reconnect with someone, but in a sense, he’s trying to reconnect with himself. And that’s me. I had a long talk with my mother this past Christmas and told her I was sorry for disappearing on her, and that was a hard, tough, good conversation to have. It wasn’t that I was intentionally disappearing, I was just busy. And she and all of them knew that. But I got to a spot in my life where that’s not OK.”
Busy. “Living in fast forward,” as he’ll sing every night on his tour this summer with Tim McGraw. (That tour comes to LP Field on Saturday, four days after Welcome to the Fishbowl’s commercial release.) Jet-setting in his own jet. Making millions. Taking 2010 “off,” though Chesney’s “off” involved recording an album, directing two films and helping to edit and promote a live concert video. Apparently, “off” is the new “on,” as he’d find when he’d head to the U.S. Virgin Islands to decompress, yet found himself compressed.
“A good friend of mine passed away in St. John this past year, and that grounded me in some ways I didn’t see coming,” he says. “I saw that person on the island, across the little road, and she was motioning for me to come over there. All of a sudden, I was on the phone, distracted, and never got there. My life has been constantly moving, constantly trying to get to a certain spot in life and in my career. Next thing you know, you’re in it. And then you become it. I know that emotion very well: feeling like I’m everywhere, all at once, but really nowhere.”
No escape this time
Lots of folks feel that way, and Chesney sings about that on his new album’s title track, a wry look at a world that’s wired differently than the one in which he began his recording career, 19 years ago.
“I grew up in a small town,” says the Luttrell, Tenn., native. “Everybody knew everybody’s business there, but it took time for the gossip to filter out. Now everybody knows everybody’s business, but it comes out instantly, and it’s global. ‘Welcome to the Fishbowl’ is a song about privacy.”
It’s also a song about the frustrations inherent in constant distraction, and about a yearning for things of permanence. Where much of Chesney’s catalog deals in the pleasures of escape, the Chesney of Welcome to the Fishbowl seeks return, not departure. The album’s initial single, “Feel Like a Rockstar,” was a hard-charging duet with Tim McGraw that will play well on the stadium tour but that Chesney admits has little to do with the rest of the album.
“ ‘Rock Star’ feeds the people that are tailgating before the shows and feeds my idea of loud and fast and high energy, and I cut it for that reason,” he says. “It really has nothing to do with the rest of the record. I believe the people who come to my shows also have a human side to them, and that they want to dig in to some different kinds of songs. I saw that with (the gentle, Grammy-nominated ballad) ‘You and Tequila’: The idea that you could do ‘You and Tequila’ in a football stadium and it would work, I’d never have thought that. But I was so glad to see that I can do that. I’m glad my audience isn’t just one way.”
Perhaps they were one way a decade ago but are another way now. That’s the case with Chesney. When he last toured with McGraw, at the turn of the century, he was somehow both successful and anonymous: a hit-singles artist who took the stage before McGraw’s set, in front of audiences who had yet to connect the upstart singer with his songs.
Three summers of touring with McGraw (1999 and 2000 with George Strait headlining, and 2001 opening for McGraw) helped him find an onstage identity and a fan base, and the 2002 release of his No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems album gave him his breakthrough to superstardom.
“Touring with Tim, I was right on the edge of realizing my dream, of seeing how far I could take it,” he says. “And those three summers started to give us an audience, not just people who came to shows. Before that, we had 17 songs on a greatest-hits album, but nobody knew who we were. We had an OK show but hadn’t made that transition in people’s hearts and heads. That last tour with Tim, all that started to change.”
Comrades, not competitors
Now it’s changed in full. McGraw, emerging from years of frustrating relations and finally freed from what he saw as a constricting deal with Curb Records, now goes on stage before Chesney, his former opener.
But the two finish each tour show singing together. They are comrades, not competitors, and they have weathered traumatic industry times and emerged together as big names on the summer’s hottest country music ticket. They’ve also used novelty-treading hits such as “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” (Chesney) and “Indian Outlaw” (McGraw) as hall passes to deeper explorations, recording works of substance from the pens of Rodney Crowell, Bruce Robison and Jason White (McGraw), and Matraca Berg, Bill Anderson and Keith Gattis (Chesney). Fishbowl has two Gattis songs, the plaintive “I’m a Small Town” and the sparkling, melancholy “El Cerrito Place.”
“I’ve loved ‘El Cerrito Place’ for almost 10 years now, and lived with it and felt it, but I wasn’t ready to record it,” Chesney says of the song that was previously recorded by Gattis and by Charlie Robison. “Now, I feel like I can get inside of the longing that’s in that song, that sense that there’s something more. Early on in my career, I recorded a bunch of songs I thought could all be singles, and we were throwing darts trying to hit the right spot on the board. Now, I’m glad to be at a part of my life that I can dig deeper, take my audience with me and see where that goes.”
This Saturday, it will go to a packed LP Field, a venue few artists can command and where the usual equation will play itself out simply and happily: Chesney will sing into a microphone, tens of thousands of people will sing back to him, and there’ll be smiles and toasts and informal preparations for Sunday-morning headaches.
But where the life of that party used to stand in front of 60,000 people and feel somehow isolated, he now feels urgent and passionate, solid and in the moment. He’s always been about movement, but now things are slowing down.
He’s working the same hours, and just as hard.
But he’s really not so busy anymore.
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