Kenny Chesney visited the White House on Wednesday and sang the national anthem to open the first ever White House Tee Ball All-Star Game:

Kenny Chesney spent part of Wednesday afternoon (July 16) with President George W. Bush and Baseball Hall of Fame member Frank Robinson during the first-ever White House Tee Ball All-Star Game in Washington. The country star also sang the national anthem prior to the game that featured young athletes from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Chesney also sang at a dinner later in the evening:

Later in the evening, Chesney performed at a White House Social Dinner in honor of Major League Baseball.

Earlier this week, Chesney told People magazine that like most boys growing up he dreamed of being a baseball player. He says he wanted to be Pete Rose.

Kenny Chesney is in New York City this week for the All-Star game, among other things. He made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on Monday night.

NBC.com has the full episode online and you can skip ahead to watch Kenny’s performance of “Better As A Memory” and also the post-performance interview.

Watch it here!

The 2008 tour is halfway over, and Kenny Chesney is taking a break in New York City next week:

With the second half of his Poets & Pirates Tour underway, Kenny Chesney will take a break for a quick trip to New York City to perform on “The Late Show with Conan O’Brien,” do some press for the MasterCard Priceless.com Roots of Rock sweepstakes and attend Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star Game, being played at Yankee Stadium.

“It’s getting to that part of the summer where home really is the road,” Chesney laughs. “Now our breaks are doing all kinds of other stuff… so it’s cool to be able to get back to ‘Conan,’ which is one of those shows that’s always sort of got us… and to be able to go to the All-Star Game, that it not only works out schedule-wise, but that it’s another one of the Priceless.com things, well, that is pretty cool.”

“And for me, getting to go to the All-Star Game… and be up close the way I’m going to get to be, well, those aren’t the kind of things I think any of us ever really dream of doing. So, this is gonna be work that’s a lot play, too.”

Having just played to 50,422 fans at Nashville’s LP Field, Chesney is no stranger to where the big boys play. With a stadium date this weekend at Atlanta’s Turner Field, Chesney’s Corona Extra-sponsored tour is bringing the summer alive in stadiums such as Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco,  Dallas, Baltimore and beyond.

“If there’s one thing I think me and the guys do is work hard and play hard – and if we’re really doing it right, you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” laughs the man who just had his 15th #1 with the two-week #1 “Better As A Memory” on the Billboard Country Singles chart. “There’s nothing we like better than getting out there and rocking… well, except getting to see some great athletes and a couple of our good friends doing the very same thing on a baseball diamond.”

Kenny Chesney’s Poets & Pirates Tour was the 4th highest concert attraction for the first half of 2008, according to the concert industry tracking publication Pollstar.

1. Bon Jovi – $56.3 mil
2. Bruce Springsteen – $40.8 mil
3. Van Halen – $36.8 mil
4. Kenny Chesney – $35.3 mil
5. Michael Bublé – $32.5 mil
6. Kanye West – $31.6 mil
7. Jay-Z/Mary J. Blige – $30.7 mil
8. Rascal Flatts – $25.4 mil
9. Spice Girls – $23.3 mil
10. The Police – $23.3 mil

Despite skyrocketing gas prices and a generally sluggish economy, the combined total of the Top 100 tours held steady at $1.05 billion, identical to the figure for the same period last year.

“The concert industry did far better in the first half of 2008 than it should have,” Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said. “Despite the worsening economic climate, whatever it is that triggers the off-switch on consumer spending for tickets doesn’t appear to have happened yet.”

Bongiovanni noted that the bad news of a drop in overall ticket sales of about 1 million tickets, or 5.6%, was offset by an increase in average ticket prices of about 5.9%, to $62.07.

LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee hosted Kenny Chesney’s Poets & Pirates Tour on Saturday. 49,000 fans packed in to hear Chesney and his opening acts: Next Big Star winner Double Trouble, Gary Allan, LeAnn Rimes, Sammy Hagar, and Keith Urban.

The Tennessean has a wrapup and review of the show:

Chesney is the only entertainer to headline the stadium since George Strait in 2000, and he has done so twice. He also played the field in 2006, drawing about 47,000 fans.

And this year, like then, festivities started in the parking lot long before the scheduled 3:30 p.m. start time. Thousands arrived hours early to tailgate before the eight-hour show.

“I think Kenny Chesney is the new Jimmy Buffet,” said Gene Cashman, a Nashville resident who arrived about 11 a.m. “We’re drinking and tailgating. It’s part people watching, and it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon with friends.”

Here was the set list from Chesney’s show:

Live Those Songs Again
Summertime
Beer In Mexico
Keg In The Closet
I Go Back
Wild Ride
Big Star
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
Don’t Blink
Shift Work
Living In Fast Forward
Young
Never Wanted Nothing More
Better As A Memory
Back Where I Come From
Stay (lead vocals by Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, with Chesney harmonizing)
Don’t Happen Twice
When The Sun Goes Down
How Forever Feels
Anything But Mine
She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy

Kenny Chesney is bringing his own radio station to XM satellite radio starting July 26th:

“No Shoes Radio” will feature music from Chesney’s audio catalog, including never-before-heard recordings, an uncut, exclusive concert broadcast from the 2008 Poets & Pirates Tour, plus random drop-ins from fans, friends and plenty of music to bring to life the attitude that permeates Kenny Chesney’s world.

“There’s a lot of hits, but there are also a lot of album tracks, songs from the early part of my career, stuff from our Keg in the Closet shows and obscurities that you had to be there to hear,” says the Luttrell, Tennessee-born and -raised singer/songwriter with a laugh. “Anyone who knows anything about me knows how passionate I am about music, and this is a way to bring people into everything I love about songs, playing … music.”

“No Shoes Radio” will also include music beyond Chesney’s catalog, featuring both those artists who rocked Chesney’s world and the kind of music you could easily hear drifting from the backstage “Vibe Room” — capturing the sonic culture of the Poets & Pirates Tour.

“I think we’ve become a part of people’s lives,” admits the high energy performer. “The way a lot of bands were for us, we’re what they’re listening to when they’re hanging out, when they’re having fun, when they need to gear up for something. That’s what music always did for me … and it’s kind of mind-blowing to think that your songs could be that for someone else. So for all those fans out there, get ready for something pretty cool.”

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“No Shoes Radio” will be available on XM channel 18 from July 26 through October 25. The channel will also be on XM Radio Online (http://xmro.xmradio.com), where it will stream for an additional three months. Complete programming information for the channel will be available online at http://www.xmradio.com/kennychesney.

After the dark days in 2005 following his quick marriage and annulment to Renee Zellweger, Chesney now feels he has gotten his edge back. In an interview with The Tennessean, Chesney discusses how he’s back to his true form:

“I feel like I’ve got my edge back,” Chesney tells the paper. “I’ve been playing guitar a lot lately. There was a period at the end of 2005 and really all of 2006 where I never took the guitar case out of the closet when I was at home. I was in such a personal funk after the Renée thing that I could have played [a stadium concert] every day of the week and wouldn’t have felt much joy from it.”

Kenny Chesney will appear on the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular on NBC-TV tomorrow at 9 pm ET.

Kenny will sing his recent hit, “Never Wanted Nothing More,” during the show, which also features former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, the New York Pops Orchestra and others. His busy schedule continues the following day when Kenny brings his massive stadium show to Nashville’s LP Field. Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and rocker Sammy Hagar are also on the all-star bill.

Kenny Chesney received the most airplay on country music radio in the first half of 2008, according to Country Aircheck’s assessment of radio broadcast data. Here’s the full list:

1. Kenny Chesney
2. Carrie Underwood
3. Taylor Swift
4. Brad Paisley
5. Rascal Flatts
6. George Strait
7. Alan Jackson
8. Montgomery Gentry
9. Rodney Atkins
10. Gary Allan