On Saturday night Kenny Chesney entertained 49,215 fans in a town that has had a rough go lately: Detroit.

“We weren’t sure about going into Detroit again,” admits Chesney. “Things have been so tough there… you know, you want to be sensitive to the community. But then I got to thinking about it, and if anyone needs a night to forget about all of it, to just have fun and feel young and free and happy, it’s somewhere like that. So we decided to go ahead… to reach out… and before we knew it, we were looking for ways to release more tickets.

“I think in Detroit we went in and found places we could open up seating three times before it was over! And I gotta tell you: those fans came out, they cheered, they danced, they sang along. They had the time of their life – and man, we’ve always had the best audiences, period. But this year, you can really feel the way people need to connect with the music, with us, with each other – and it’s powerful! This has been a whole other kind of summer in terms of how the fans are reacting, and in some ways, it’s the most rewarding year we’ve ever had!”

Kenny also recently added one more show to the Sun City Carnival Tour: Bloomington, Illinois.

“I’ve always wanted to do a college town tour beyond the SEC, but by the time school gets back in session, we’re usually done and long gone…,” Chesney says of the surprise arena show. “You know, there’s nothing like that feeling of going back to start another year… All the unknowns, all the promise, all the fun you know you’re going to have and the things you can’t imagine you’re going to learn. For me, going back to school, as much as I hated the summer ending, was always such a great time. I think it’s great that this year, we can plug into that.”

Check out all the tour dates that remain and get tickets for them here.