NEW YORK (Oxygen Network) - They met when they performed on the "Christmas In Washington" special - and became friends in spite of Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems bumping Ashanti's self-titled debut off the top of Billboard's all-genre Top 200 Albums chart. He was the country singer with the penchant for the sun and the water; she was the precious urban baby diva, but in spite of the differences, they really dug each other.
Though it seemed like polemics, Kenny Chesney and Ashanti became friends singing songs like "Golden Ring" and laughing about the experiences they had in common. Neither ever thought anything would come of their friendship musically, until the folks at Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Network approached the unlikely pair about joining forces for a "Custom Concert" that would show the overlap or at least complimentary nature of what the two multi-platinum recording artists do.
"Ashanti is just a good ole girl," says the 17-million-selling singer/songwriter from Luttrell, Tennessee. "She is about as sweet as pie, loves to sing and is seriously good people. We were laughing about the chart thing when we met in Washington a year ago for the Christmas special, but I don't think either one of us ever thought we'd be making music together - given what we do - on our own special."
Chesney is, of course, the just-crowned Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year - an award given to reflect the winner's broadening of country music's audience. With a 7 week No 1 duet with Uncle Kracker on "When The Sun Goes Down," anchoring hard rocker Sammy Hagar's birthday weekend or paddling around with Jimmy Buffett in the studio, ignoring genre labels has never been something that's been a problem for the man who cites Keith Whitley and Conway Twitty as influences.
"Music is music... and I like music made from the heart, music that comes from people's souls," says the man who's sold close to 1.2 million concert tickets this year alone, putting him behind only Prince for total fans played to. "To me, it doesn't matter who someone is or what you call it, just that they mean it."
Slated to tape Tuesday, November 23 at New York's too hot Cro-Bar, the "Custom Concert" will debut on Sunday, November 28 at 10 p.m. on The Oxygen Network. It will then re-air at 10 p.m. on Monday December 20th - and again at 11 p.m. on Thursday December 30th. Each star will do a few of their own hits, then the pair will join forces for something a little bit special and unique.
Laughing, the man who also won the CMA's Album of the Year award for his approaching quadruple platinum When The Sun Goes Down admits narrowing down the choices to the 4 potential duets on Oxygen.com, the network's website, was harder than it would seem. "In some ways our influences are so different, but we both like music...
So between the two of us, we were everywhere from old country to Motown to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty to the Rolling Stones! You had two people who really liked music, who couldn't really make up there mind!"
Chesney's a big make-up-your-mind factor these days, as he's the only country artist nominated for the fan voted Artist of the Year at this Sunday's "American Music Awards" - competing with Evanescence, Outkast, Usher & Norah Jones for the cell-phone and web-site-driven polling award - in addition to Top Country Male and Top Country Album.
With a concert on NBC's "Today Show" on Monday 11/22 and a performance on the ABC's "AMAs," there's plenty of chance to see the man who's done touring for 2004 before this banner year winds down.
