NASHVILLE, TN. (BNA Records) - Everyone knew there were sparks when country star
Kenny Chesney made his concert appearance on last year's "Today Show," but that's not the only reason the NBC wake-up show is putting down stakes in Nashville for one day next month. But it IS the reason the reigning Country
Music Association Entertainer of the Year is able to work into a too busy schedule.
Having had to postpone the kick-off of this year's Somewhere in the Sun Tour for two weeks due to an ankle injury, the scrambling, scuffling and stuffing in the Luttrell, Tennessean's schedule has been insane.
"I've got photo shoots, awards shows coming up," reports the man who sold 1.2 million concert tickets last year, second only to Prince's multiple nights in several cities Musicology tour. "We're trying to make up all the missed dates while we can still get Kracker and Gretchen, making some weeks for the tour 5 dates… we're trying to do some advance work on the stadium shows… and of course, there is that little matter of working on my next record, which I've started - and am pretty excited about.
"But nothing excites me as much right now, I don't think, as being able to wake up in my own bed and still get to do something like 'The Today Show.' MAYBE the greatest luxury in my life 'til this tour is over is getting to do any major television, and still being able to sleep in my own home…"
Chesney's performance - tentatively scheduled for inside the major lobby of the Opryland Hotel - will be three songs. And knowing the man who won the American Music Awards, fan-voted Favorite Artist Award over Usher, Outkast, Evanescence and Norah Jones, those three songs are gonna rock in that sweep-up the heartland way. No word on whether he'll performing anything off his deeply personal No 1 Billboard all-genre debuting Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair, which has passed platinum and is heading for two million, but you can bet his CMA Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down will be amply represented.
"Those songs aren't always the easiest songs to sing that early in the morning, but they do pick you up and move you along," says Chesney of an album that was singled out by Blender, USA Today, Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, not to mention The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Tennessean. "And when you're staring down an alarm clock, there you go.
"I think waking people up, getting'em moving - especially folks who aren't morning people is almost as much fun as what we do onstage every night!" Chesney admits with a laugh. "You know, they come to a show and they're primed to have a good time, which we give them in industrial strength; but when you're trying to get to work, your mind's all tied up in knots over whatever, you just can't wake up... If a little jolt of 'Keg In The Closet' or 'Anything But Mine' kicks you into high gear, and gets you ready for your day, then I can't think of anything I'd rather do!"
