Nashville, TN (Kenny Chesney Official Website) - The add date wasn't even until January 9th, but having kicked off the '39th Annual Country
Music Awards' with a searing version of 'Living In Fast Forward,' they couldn't hold back people playing the Rivers Rutherford/David Lee Murphy rave-up - as stations broke protocol and started putting the full-tilt pages-torn-from-the-life-of-a-superstar anthem on their playlists early. And now, eight short weeks later,
Kenny Chesney blazes back into No 1 with a blast of hard-hitting tempo.
'It's funny,' says the self-effacing singer/songwriter who joined Mick Jagger and U2's Bono on the cover of Billboard as one of the year's Top 3 earning musicians, 'because I usually think that it's when I sing about the life I've led that all the fans are living too that we connect the hardest. Now here I am singing a song that's exactly what the part of this life that nobody can imagine is like - and people can't seem to get enough of it! It's funny… maybe everybody's secret fantasy IS to be a hillbilly rock star?! And heaven knows, this song sure puts you way deep in how it is.'
Having moved up the charts so fast, it was hard to keep up with it, 'Living In Fast Forward' is only the second single from the approaching triple platinum The Road & The Radio, which was certified double platinum in less than 6 weeks after release. With his ABC network special 'Kenny Chesney: Somewhere In The Sun' already behind him, it's full-throttle as usual as the man whose played to over a million fans every year for the last 4 years in a row gets back to finalizing his show for the coming summer.
'Getting the entrance just right, trying to come up with something new is its own job… and then we've been locked down tweaking lighting cues, so what you see is set-off in a way that makes it even more exciting,' says the man with a work ethic second to no one. 'The video is about finally done for the screens, so all we have to do is make some final decisions about the set list, and we're gonna be ready to lock and load on our run-throughs. For all the throw it all out there that it might seem like, people have no idea HOW MUCH WORK goes into being able to be that free and that crazy.'
Having snuck away last week to play a private show for 4,000 lucky country music cruise-goers on an island off Nassau, Chesney's got his performance motor running… and he's ready to get back out there. For fans across America, it all starts March 23, with two shows in Dayton.
'It was a pretty cool show, for us having only done Keg since we shut it down last year,' Chesney acknowledges. 'Flip flops, linen pants, really easy… and yet REALLY fun. The audience was awesome, and they remind me - again and again - how great the idea of coming together for some songs, some laughs, being with your friends can be. If this is 'Living in Fast Forward,' then I'll take it… and if it can be No 1 as well, well, that's even better.'
