Philadelphia, PA (Top40 Charts/ BNA Entertainment) - Normally it's a high noon proposition, but when the security showed up, there were already 4 trucks, tents and a fair number of potted palms in the parking lot at Philadelphia 's Lincoln Financial Field at 5 a.m. - an hour most revelers are still sleeping off the night before. But as has been the course on Kenny Chesney's high-spirited Flip Flop Summer Tour - a tour that's seen surprise appearances by
Joe Walsh and Uncle Kracker, off the cuff performances of Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair's 'Something Sexy About The Rain' and a wild, wooly redux of
David Allan Coe's classic 'You Never Even Called Me By My Name' - the fans who're turning out are fully committed to making it the experience of their summer, and they're leaving no cooler unturned.
'I thought me and my buddies were crazy,' laughs the good-natured songwriter, who just happens to be the triple and reigning Academy of Country Music and two time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year. 'But some of my fans... well, they've come up with stuff we've never thought of. You see pirate flags, barbeque pits, neon, palm trees, margarita machines, not to mention a lot of bikinis, Frisbees and touch football games. It puts pressure on me to deliver onstage, knowing there's a party like that going on in the parking lot!'
The 51,800 fans were on their feet almost the entire night on the second NFL Stadium stop of the Flip Flop Summer - presented by Cruzan Rum - tour. Regular tourmates Sugarland and multiple-Grammy nominee Pat Green, triple Entertainers of the Year Brooks & Dunn and recent Female Vocalist of the Year Sara Evans took the capacity crowd who were ready to rock, and showed Philly more momentum than 'Never Wanted Nothing More,' the lead single from Chesney's much anticipated Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, which hits stories Sept. 11
'Just when you think there's no more you can get out of a stadium crowd,' enthuses the soft-spoken superstar who played to over 1.3 million people last year, 'we find another night, another city - and it shows us how much louder, crazier, how much more fun it can be! It was off the hook - and, you know, my ears rang all the way down the islands from the sound of those fans. All that, and the Mayor's office declared it Kenny Chesney Day and gave me the key to the city. Now that is what I call Brotherly Love.'
With four more NFL Stadiums - in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle to go, a blazing single form the pens of bluegrass icon Ronnie Bowman and hard country hitmaker Chrus Stapleton that's hit the brink of the Top 10 in its third week as 'Never Wanted Nothin' More' lands at No 9 with a bullet and Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - again co-produced by Chesney and ACM Song of the Year co-writer Buddy Cannon - looking to be the Luttrell, Tennessean's most versatile record to date.
'It's been a good summer,' agrees the man who spent three weeks at No 1 with his own solely written 'Beer In Mexico' this spring. 'And to think, it's only half gone. I can't even imagine how much better it's gonna get!'
