Yesterday Kenny Chesney announced that he would be taking most of next year off. In hindsight it’s not much of a surprise as over the past several months Kenny has hinted that he was considering taking a break.
Last November, Chesney discussed the possibility of touring overseas if he ever took a year off from the states:
“The summer that I take a year off from the States might be the summer that I go over there and test the waters,” Kenny tells Dial-Global. “My friend Bruce Springsteen told me once I go over there and build that fan base that they will always be there. So I hope he’s right. I wanna try and do that someday.”
This is interesting because in the Entertainment Weekly interview with Kenny that was posted yesterday (see “No Tour Next Year For Kenny Chesney”), Chesney also mentioned Bruce Springsteen:
“Bruce Springsteen has pretty much defined the live communion with the audience. He has defined the passion and the connection to the fans. And one night when we were playing in New Jersey, Bruce sat on my bus with me and we talked for a couple hours, and he told me something that hit me really hard, and it’s stuck with me ever since. He said, “Kenny, you can write half a song on a piece of paper, and you can put that piece of paper away in a drawer for five years, and you can go back to it, and that song will still be there. But life isn’t like that. And whatever you’re doing, don’t miss your life, too.” And I thought about that all year. I’ve been giving to one thing for so long that I just realized that had to change.”
Then in June, our article “Chesney Ready To Take A Year Off” covered another Entertainment Weekly interview where Kenny expressed his desire to take a break:
If you’d told me when I was sitting on that barstool [playing for tips after college] that I’d win as many Entertainers of the Year as Garth Brooks did, I’d have told you you were crazy. And I have. Do I want to win another one? Yeah, sure. But you know what? The things that you have to do to be in that spot? I’m not gonna do anymore. I’m not. Because it has… in ways… I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s like — it almost makes it seem mechanical. And I think I can be better than that. I really do. I don’t think I’ve written my best song yet. I want to be a great songwriter. And if that means, you know, taking a year off and living on my boat and writing those songs, I want to do it. Despite the consequences.”
“You almost seem like you’re looking forward to it,” I suggested, and Chesney nodded. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I still think that I’ve got a lot to give. But I want to give on my own terms. Because me and these guys have been busting our ass forever. And I’m not gonna stop doing that. We live by the code of we work really hard, and we play harder. There’s no doubt about it. But I really don’t think I’ve written my best song.
It’s the last week of the Sun City Carnival Tour, but Kenny Chesney made time for a special benefit show on Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square New York.
Uncle Kracker was the opener and then Chesney came out and played a normal set at first, but then transitioned into a few rarities. Here’s the set list:
Beer in Mexico
Out Last Night
Big Star
Guitars and Tiki Bars
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
I Go Back
Anything But Mine
Living In Fast Forward
Young
Never Wanted Nothing More
Please Come To Boston
Be As You Are
I’m On Fire
When The Sun Goes Down (with Uncle Kracker)
Follow Me (Uncle Kracker song)
Don’t Happen Twice
The show, including Uncle Kracker’s performance, was broadcast live on No Shoes Radio – only the second live broadcast of a show (Orange Beach, AL was the first).
Proceeds from the concert benefited PlanItNow, an organization that helps coastal areas prepare for hurricanes.
In a letter to fans sent out today, Kenny Chesney says that he’s not going to do his usual big tour next year. He’ll put out an album in April and do a few gigs here and there, but no “great big rock & roll tour”:
It has been an amazing summer… and I can’t believe it’s almost over. So much has happened – whether it was watching all of you hang in there with us during that horrible storm in Dallas, and coming back the next week to finish what we started, having Key West close down Duval Street for our Keg in the Closet at Sloppy Joe’s, the almost too intense to describe stadium shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, San Francisco, Louisville, Seattle, kicking off No Shoes Radio live in Orange Beach, Alabama with everybody going out all over the world via the internet – and sitting here on my bus, it kind
of leaves me speechless.
You know, every year, I think it can’t get any better.
Every year, you guys bring a real passion for this music and enjoy the night with us. Me and the guys talk about that more than you’d ever guess: how great the audiences are, the way you sound singing our songs back to us, the smiles we see from the stage.
Because we see you. We REALLY see you… And none of that is taken lightly.
You guys are the best fans any entertainer could hope to have, You rock us, push us and make us better. I sometimes think you guys truly drive and inspire us to be the most we can.
And that’s just it. You guys deserve the absolutely best and most.
I start working on our next year’s tour almost a year before. It’s about what more, how can, where do… and in all of that, you can find yourself so lost in beating the year before that you miss the moments that make what we – you, me, the band and crew – so special.
Since we hit the road as headliners with the palm trees lit by a full moon in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2002, you guys have been there and been there and been there. And after eight years, it’s time for a little break… to exhale, to think about what next, to create something that’s truly different.
That all takes time. It should never be fit in amongst everything else.
I’ve said we’re like a baseball team: six months on, six months off. But honestly, we work straight through: both on making the music and creating the shows. With a record coming next April and a couple other projects that we’ll be telling you about soon, you’re gonna have more than plenty of me next year – but what you won’t have is a great big rock & roll tour.
Will I show up here and there? Absolutely. But I want to take that moment to really think about what next, to make my record and really get inside it, to create a show that’s something else… because you deserve no less.
It’s why I’m writing this letter…
It’s why I’m willing to have a summer where I don’t get to hear your cheers, hit the parking lot on stadium Saturdays, to listen to you sing these songs that are so much a part of my life back to me.
I’m gonna hate it and miss it, but I know when I hit the stage again, it’s gonna be even better, even more. Because I know you guys. You’re as good as they get, and we’re gonna get even better during the time we’re taking off…
So, this isn’t good-bye, it’s just we’re taking a break. And you’re still gonna see me… way more than you’d probably expect. But I always want you to hear it from me… that way it’s not rumors and speculation, it’s the real of how it is. And right now, the real is: I can’t wait to hit the stage in Bloomington, Illinois and Indianapolis this weekend – and I can’t wait for you to hear the new music.
Until then, I remain your biggest fan in the whole world. Absolutely.
- Kenny
Entertainment Weekly has more in an interview with Chesney:
Entertainment Weekly: So you’re quitting, eh?
Kenny Chesney: I’m not quitting! I’m not quitting. It’s just a short pause. It would be easy to keep doing it, because it’s fun, and the fans are unbelievable. But I don’t know — then you realize that at some point you’re missing a part of your life. My life has been a lot about parking lots. I need to recharge creatively, and get off the clock of having to be somewhere just because, and having to keep juggling all these things. And people needing answers. I just felt like this year it finally hit me that I need to get reconnected with my family. I wanna do some things that I’ve never gotten to do, like see other parts of the world, write some more songs. Do some shows that are completely different for me. I might wanna go do an acoustic show at Red Rocks or something. Something to feed my soul. I’ve given a big part of my soul for this for so long, and nothing has really been filling that up. It seems like in the last couple of years, I’ve been on an empty tank. And that’s gotta change.
Was there a precipitating incident this summer that really put it over the top for you?
Not really. It’s just something that’s been building. I think I’m really blessed to have a run like we’ve had. I don’t take it for granted. You realize what it means for the fans to be there, too. I don’t take that lightly. As a performer you don’t want to let go of that connection, but you also know as an artist you want to give them even more. And I realized this year that means just taking a deep breath, cause I want to give them more later on, too. I’ve thought about this a lot. To me, Bruce Springsteen has pretty much defined the live communion with the audience. He has defined the passion and the connection to the fans. And one night when we were playing in New Jersey, Bruce sat on my bus with me and we talked for a couple hours, and he told me something that hit me really hard, and it’s stuck with me ever since. He said, “Kenny, you can write half a song on a piece of paper, and you can put that piece of paper away in a drawer for five years, and you can go back to it, and that song will still be there. But life isn’t like that. And whatever you’re doing, don’t miss your life, too.” And I thought about that all year. I’ve been giving to one thing for so long that I just realized that had to change.
Read the full interview here for more insight into Kenny’s decision.
Share your thoughts on this announcement on our forum.
Kenny Chesney is nominated for CMA Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist and Vocal Event of the Year and you can get tickets to the awards show via presale starting on Wednesday.
“The 43rd Annual CMA Awards” are Wednesday, November 11th from Nashville’s Sommet Center. Tickets go on sale to the public Saturday 9/19, but you can buy early in a special presale 9/17-9/18.
Kenny Chesney performs tonight at the Hard Rock in New York City as part of the Ambassadors of Rock series.
No Shoes Radio will broadcast the show live. Tune in at 6 pm EDT for the pre-show with Jon Anthony and Mark “Tambo” Tamburino.
“It’s like being there,” Chesney said, “only you don’t have to leave wherever you are. Set your browser, kick back or get back to work and join in all the action. As the year’s closing down, this is gonna be a pretty cool contrast to how big some of the shows have been – and we’re gonna have a couple surprises. So for anyone who’s ever wanted to get into one of those tiny invite-only shows, this is your chance.”
We’ll be hosting a live chat on our forum during the show. Join the fun here.
“Music that connects is music that rocks,” Chesney said. “To me, the Hard Rock Ambassadors of Rock Tour is about the experience of music, of coming together, of how blinding it can be when it’s good… whether it’s Bruce Springsteen or Nine Inch Nails, Neil Young, The Killers or us. I’m honored to take part in this because that place where music and people come together to really let go, well, that’s what we’re all about.”
“Part of the idea of the station is to bring people deeper into this music,” Chesney said, “to give them more or a sense beyond the records and the big shows. We play stuff from my I-Pod, demos, things they’d never hear otherwise…and for but a very few hundred people, this Hard Rock show would certainly be one of those moments: something we’d all talk about how cool it was for years, knowing almost nobody got to hear it. Now, they can.”
“It’s like being there,” Chesney said, “only you don’t have to leave wherever you are. Set your browser, kick back or get back to work and join in all the action. As the year’s closing down, this is gonna be a pretty cool contrast to how big some of the shows have been – and we’re gonna have a couple surprises. So for anyone who’s ever wanted to get into one of those tiny invite-only shows, this is your chance.”
On Friday night Kenny Chesney played a show at the Leon County Civic Center in Tallahassee, but earlier in the day he made time to visit with Florida State coach Bobby Bowden:
Country music superstar Kenny Chesney, in town to do a concert at the Civic Center, made certain he had time to see Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden on Friday.
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“I just want to stop by and say ‘I love you,’ ” Chesney told the veteran coach.
Bowden was doing an interview at the time, discussing his religion and football and his faith when the singer of “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven’ came by.
Chesney said he was trying to work out a time to return to Tallahassee once his current tour ends. Bowden invited Chesney, an avid college football fan, to participate in practices as a receiver this fall. That’s something Chesney did several years ago during a spring practice.
Kenny Chesney’s latest single moved up three spots this week on the Billboard Top Country Songs Chart. Last week “I’m Alive”, the duet with Dave Matthews, was in the number 19 slot but this week the single climbs to number 16.
Jason Aldean has the top spot again this week with “Big Green Tractor”. That’s his third week at number one.
You can preview and download the single below from Amazon or get it from iTunes.
“It’s funny, but the more you do this, the more those nominations mean,” Chesney said in a statement. “You realize what it takes to receive an honor like this — especially from your peers who make it happen and know the work and commitment it takes. You’ve got to be humbled knowing what you do is recognized. For me, the last 8 years has been about how do we make it mean more, give people all the things I wanted from the artists I loved growing up…so that when they look back, this music, these nights are something they’re gonna be proud to remember their youth by.”
“Beyond the rain-out at the stadium in Dallas and how long we played in that downpour – not to mention going back and really making it something,” Chesney said, “we got to do some really memorable things: Canada for the first time, headlining some major festivals, aligning with the Hard Rock and being one of their Amabassadors of Rock and the stuff we’ve done with them,getting to do ‘Austin City Limits’ stripped down, plus the launch of No Shoes Radio which brings the culture to the fans wherever they are: from the parking lot to the boat, backstage to kicking back with my friends, not to mention having Mac out on some stadium dates to sing ‘Down the Road’ and putting ‘I’m Alive’ out – which Buddy and I originally cut with Willie Nelson for Moment of Forever – with my buddy Dave (Matthews).
“You get moving so fast, all this stuff happens and you have to keep going. Moments like this force you to slow down and think about everything that goes into a nomination like this… all the pieces, the team who helps you pull stuff like this off and, especially, the faces of the fans when you’re on a gator in the parking lot or flying over them on that swing we used for entrances this year.
“Obviously, I want to win Entertainer. But looking at all of this, thinking about everything we’ve been, everything we’ve seen and done, in some ways I’ve already won because look at the memories we made. To me, that’s the best thing we can do: give the fans music and memories worth remembering.”
Yesterday Kenny Chesney announced that he would be taking most of next year off. In hindsight it’s not much of a surprise as over the past several months Kenny has hinted that he was considering taking a break.
It’s the last week of the Sun City Carnival Tour, but Kenny Chesney made time for a special benefit show on Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square New York.
In a letter to fans sent out today, Kenny Chesney says that he’s not going to do his usual big tour next year. He’ll put out an album in April and do a few gigs here and there, but no “great big rock & roll tour”:
Kenny Chesney is nominated for CMA Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist and Vocal Event of the Year and you can get tickets to the awards show via presale starting on Wednesday.
Kenny Chesney performs tonight at the Hard Rock in New York City as part of the Ambassadors of Rock series.
