Kenny's living on London Times

NASHVILLE, TN. (BNA Records) - If "Tulsa Time" was good enough for Eric Clapton, newly crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year Kenny Chesney is more than happy to be the subject of three pages in The London Times Sunday Magazine section. The profile - titled "Another Country" - by award-winning British journalist Alan Jackson examined the phenomenon that is Kenny Chesney brand of country music beyond the obvious.
"You never know if people from other places or cultures are gonna get this," Chesney admits with a laugh, about the profile which ran in front of the CMA Awards in Britain's leading newspaper.
"So I was a little nervous. We talked about politics and business and music - and then you know the writer's going to go away, and you won't really know what they think."

While all those topics were covered, one of the biggest revelations in the piece may well have come from Chesney himself. In addressing the moment when the musical shift occurred and the real success started, the man who sold 1.2 million tickets offered The Times this insight, addressing the disconnect of his initital platinum records, "They were just collections of songs anybody might have sung. Then I had this kind of epiphany, and realized that I wasn't going to be truly happy until I quit trying to be George Strait and started being myself.
That's when my life, my career and everything started changing for the better."

Indeed, with When The Sun Goes Down now triple platinum and outsold by only Usher and Norah Jones this year - and over 1.2 million tickets sold for his Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lotta Love Tour, Chesney's had a major 2004. And he's set to ring in 2005 in right, with the release of the intimate Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair on Jan. 25.