Nashville, TN (Kenny Chesney Official Website) - With his 'Living In Fast Forward' currently the No 1 Country Single in the nation - according to Billboard -
Kenny Chesney walked away with a pair of Academy of Country
Music Awards nominations. The reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year is again up for the California-based Academy's top honor, as well as being nominated for Top Male Vocalist - an award the Luttrell, Tennessee received from the ACM in 2003.
'You're always glad to see that your peers and the people who make this business rock recognize both the hard work that goes into this music and what we do,' says Chesney, whose in final technical rehearsals for his heavily anticipated The Road & The Radio Tour, which kicks off March 23 with a pair of dates at Dayton, Ohio's Nutter Center. 'I am always so focused on what's next, what're we doing to make the show better… sometimes I forget to pause and think about everything we've accomplished, because, you know, no matter what you do - you always see the next challenge,
'Moments like this make me grateful for everything me and my guys, the people at the label, everyone who's part of this and especially the fans have been a part of over the last year. I mean, if you'd've told me, even after we played UT's football stadium, that I'd play football stadiums in Boston, Pittsburgh or Washington, DC, I don't know if I'd've believed you.'
Chesney's got plenty of reasons to believe! In spite of some of the music industry's lowest ticket prices, the singer/songwriter was recently crowned last year's third highest earner behind rock legends the Rolling Stones and U2 - gracing the cover of Billboard between Mick Jagger and Bono - and was the only country act to play football stadiums in 2005, on his way to his fourth consecutive year of playing to over one million people nationwide. Certified double platinum in 6 weeks, his brand new The Road & The Radio became his 4th straight No 1 all-genre Top 200 Albums debut, en route to earning Chesney a plaque for 25 million albums sold.
'When I look back and realize both Be As You Are and The Road & The Radio debuted at No 1 last year… and Be As You Are had no single, nothing really… that we recorded The Road & The Radio while we were touring… that there were so many faces, so many smiles looking up at us, so many miles traveled… it makes me pause,' says Chesney. 'And after I pause, I think about doing it all over again… and it gets me fired up. Especially right now, cause we're not quite on the road, not quite getting that hit of energy from the crowd, so these nominations come at a really great time.'
Chesney's first leg of The Road & Radio has been selling faster than any of his previous tours - selling out in matters of minutes in many markets, and second shows being added at an unprecedented rate. With over 250,000 tickets sold in just a matter of days, the bill, which also features Dierks Bentley and Sugarland, guarantees Chesney's high level of fun, frolic and enough energy to keep the crowd going as long as the music keeps playing.
