Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ RCA Nashville) -
Kenny Chesney never set out to be a star. He wanted to write songs, sing for people and make sure they had a good time when they came out to his shows. Along the way, he's notched some of country music's biggest hits of the 21st century, with multiple week No 1s 'There Goes My Life,' 'When the Sun Goes Down,' 'No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,' 'Summertime,' 'Beer In Mexico,' 'The Good Stuff,' 'Anything But Mine,' and 'Living In Fast Forward.' You can also add to that list 'Never
Wanted Nothing More,' 'Don't Blink' and now 'Shiftwork,' all hits from his current album, Just Who I Am:
Poets & Pirates.
With his 2008 Poets & Pirates, sponsored by Corona Extra, hitting 14 Stadiums this summer - including selling out Foxboro, MA's Gillette Stadium in less than an hour - Chesney is winding up for his biggest year ever. Last year's Flip Flop Summer Tour marked his 6th year in a row of selling over a million concert tickets - with only the Police's Reunion Tour outdrew it, and Chesney spent 14 weeks at the top of the Country singles charts as an artist and another three as the writer of Rascal Flatts' 'Take Me There.'
While Chesney did not speak to the A&E crew, many close associates - ranging from manager Clint Higham to songwriter Dean Dillon to producer Buddy Cannon - and fellow artists, including 'Sun' duet mate Uncle Kracker and 4-time Entertainers of the Year Brooks & Dunn - share their insight into Chesney's rise to being not just country music, but live music's dominant force since 2000.
'I think it's too soon for this sort of thing,' Chesney admits. 'There's still so much to do. But I know they spoke to the people who had a lot to do with how we've accomplished what we have - and everyone who works with me came away feeling like they were really trying to get at not just how we did it, but why the fans have responded to me and the guys and this music in the way they have.'
His opening weekend for the Poets & Pirates Tour, April 18-19 in Uncasville , Connecticut , is already sold-out. And then another summer is ready to swing wide open as the three-time and current Country Music Association and three-in-a-row and reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year takes to the road to bring the fun to fans across the nation.
'I think it's pretty simple,' Chesney says. 'Cut the songs I've always lived or seen my friends go through - because I knew lots of other people just like me and my buddies had lived them, too. Then take it out on the road, give people the time of their lives, do a show that gives everything, makes people forget… and know people will always come back to a good time.'
For anyone who wants to get their motor running a little early for the summer's tail-gating, radio-blasting, sing-every-song-he-does-cause-you-know-em-by-heart, A&E's 'Biography' airs tomorrow night. For a peak behind the curtain of how it all comes together, it's a pretty good place to start.
