In an interview with CMT, Kenny’s “You and Tequila” duet partner Grace Potter reveals how she first met Kenny, and what it was like to work with him:

The first time Grace Potter saw Kenny Chesney in person, backstage at the 2008 Farm Aid concert, she was unfamiliar with his achievements. “Dave [Matthews] and Kenny were clowning around for like hours and hours and hours and I was witness to it, but I didn’t know who Kenny was,” she noted during a recent visit to CMT. “I just thought he was some crazy dude in a cowboy hat. I had no idea the levity of what he does and his approach to life.”

Likewise, Chesney had never met the dynamic leader of Grace Potter & the Nocturnals in person, even though he was a fan of her music. He invited her to sing a few sultry lyrics on “You and Tequila,” a song co-written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter. After recording his part, he sent Potter the track. She called him back the next day to eagerly accept the overture — and she nailed her lines in the studio in less than 15 minutes. Chesney ultimately put the track on his new album, Hemingway’s Whiskey.

“Kenny’s really generous to other people in his duets. He seems to really give all of himself without ever making it about him. He’s very generous with the spotlight,” she says. And if the soft-spoken track catches on with Chesney’s fans, Potter just might end up being a country star.

CMT: What was it about this offer to record “You and Tequila” that made you accept it?

Potter: I was always sort of mystified and excited about the world of country music. Something about it struck me as enchanted. It’s something that’s so beyond what I do and what I grew up doing, it was like the unknown — kind of how I felt about gospel music when I first started listening to and studying gospel music. The song itself is just unbelievable. It is one of the most well-written songs. I knew it was just a demo. I knew it was kind of a one-tape wonder approach. And the second I heard that chorus, I was like “Oh, I’m in. I’m in.’”

Kenny has described your time in the studio together as “magical.” Do you agree?

It was, I think. Sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t. You can’t force something. If it’s meant to be, it happens exactly as it’s supposed to. In this case, he knew the kind of song he was dealing with. He knew that it needed to be something different. I think he understood that this wasn’t your traditional collaboration. I’m a complete unknown. In that way, I think he knew exactly what he was doing. He was like, “Let’s get this girl from Vermont who’s got nothing to do with country music, nothing to do with me, nothing to do with anything that I’ve sort of built my career around and let’s just see what happens with this really beautiful song.” And it worked.

Watch Kenny and Grace perform “You and Tequila” at the Ryman Auditorium here.