NASHVILLE, TN. (BNA Records) - Always looking for new and fun ways to bring the fans closer for his full-tilt live shows, CMA Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney is instituting "the Sand Bars," special standing room only pits adjacent to the stage to make his fans' concert-going experience potentially even more up close and personal. And with the exception of 30 "Sand Bar" Passes being set aside for
Radio Friends & Family, the rest of the in-his-face general admission tickets are going to be passed out to random fans on the day of each show.
"I figure they're on their feet anyway," says Chesney with a laugh. "We might as well tuck'em almost up under our heels, and really bring'em into the show. I've been to rock shows where bands do it - and it just makes the performance that much more intense; and anyone who's ever seen one of our shows knows we thrive on just how intense that connection can be."
With a double-header full production kick-off in Green Bay on March 10-11 - following a March 9th appearance at the Houston Rodeo & Livestock Show where he shattered George Strait's attendance record last year - Chesney's Somewhere In The Sun Tour is looking to be a worthy follow-up to last year's Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lot of Love Tour, which - with its 1.2 million fans played to - was outdrawn only by Prince's Musicology Tour.
"It's not that I think about those things," Chesney admits, "because you can't really get your head around what that means... beyond the idea that a lot of really cool people came out and partied with us. And they got the idea of what we're all about out here - cause every day, you'd go out to the parking lot around 4, 5 o'clock and see people tailgating, which is what my music is hopefully about:kicking back with friends, having a good time, sharing a moment. Still when you think about all those people who showed up, and you think about how good they gave, you wanna come back stronger, bigger, better than ever. So, the idea of bringing them right up to the stage is pretty cool..."
Chesney's Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair drops Tuesday (Jan. 25) - as his triple platinum CMA Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down's "Anything But Mine" climbs the Country Singles Chart. The man The Los Angeles Times' calls the second highest earning musician last year kicks off his intimate, anything but traditionally marketed CD with a live CMT telecast Jan 22 at 9 pm EST - rebroadcast multiple times in the coming weeks - as well as appearing in People, Entertainment Weekly, Redbook, USA Today, Caribbean Travel & Leisure, Rolling Stone and the cover of Feb 5's Country Weekly, plus performing the title track on "The Tonight Show" Feb. 1.
And his 1st Keg in the Closet date -- Jan 27 at Starr Hill in Charlottesville, VA - sold out in 25 minutes. "It would've been faster," says venue manager Bryan Allenby, "but our website was slowed down by all the people. Now the angry calls begin." The University of Virginia is the 1st school on the tour; with 4 more lucky colleges to be announced over the next two weeks.
