NASHVILLE, TN. (BNA Records) - In a world where everything's relative, it sometimes comes down to a few basic facts. For Kenny Chesney, it's about how many fans he rocked this year - which was according to touring industry bible Pollstar 1,206,946, placing him squarely behind
Prince as the year's second most attended tour in ANY genre. As the year end tabulations get tabulated, there are a lot of methodologies at play - and if you go by gross, then indeed, Kenny Chesney's fan friendly ticket prices guarantee that his tour will never be the biggest tour of the year; but if you talk to the fans, all 1.2 million of them, they might disagree.
"I hate that all the people coming out to see me this summer might be thinking they weren't part of the biggest thing in my life, because I try to make sure people can afford to bring a date to our shows," laughs the man who broke attendance records all over America this summer. "To me, I'm here for the long haul, for the fans and trying to give them what I remember wanting. But at the same time, they helped make this tour so huge - and I want them to know that, because they're the reason we do this."
Connecting with the fans is always what drives the Luttrell, Tennessean both in terms of his stage show and his records. With the triple platinum+ WhenThe Sun Goes Down closing out the year as Billboard's No 1 Country Album, it is also officially the No 3 seller in ALL genres - behind Usher and Norah Jones - giving country music a pretty hardcore profile in the realm of pop music.
"It's this time of year where everyone gets so competitive," Chesney explains. "It's almost like getting your report card - only sometimes in that, I think we miss how well a lot of us are doing. I had absolutely the best year of my career. Do I want to do better? Best myself? I sure do. But I also don't wanna lose the joy of how great it is, because somebody's equation doesn't take into consideration something as simple as the number of fans... As long as the fans keep coming, I'm gonna be out there, and when I go to awards shows, I hope they know, I'm kind of there on their behalf, too, because they ARE a huge part of this."
Indeed, Chesney's Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lot of Love Tour smashed last year's Margaritas & Senoritas tour by almost 200,00 fans - and next year's Somewhere In The Sun Tour promises to be even bigger. With Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair dropping Jan 25th - as When The Sun Goes Down's haunting "Anything But Mine" begins its climb up the country radio charts - the reigning CMA Entertainer and Album of the Year winner will again redefine the possibilities for his own career.
"Theoretically, you don't have two albums out at the same time, but they're so different - yet both such a part of me - and we're working them completely differently," says the man who wrote all 13 of Be As You Are's songs. "Everybody knows the Kenny who's just like they are, the one who feels like he's lived or knows the people in every song... but the island record is more thoughtful, more about that part of me that exists away from the stage, away from the career. It's a part of me I don't always get to share with a lot of people, but I love my life - and what I've learned about life - down there, so this is my way of bringing all the fans who love this music so much into it."
Look for a Song From An Old Blue Chair Feb 1 on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
