In a recent interview Kenny Chesney offers some commentary on coming up in the CD age but now living in the digital age:
“Obviously, the business has changed,” he says. “But I still believe that there are a percentage of people out there that want to… hear the investment the artist makes. And I still believe there’s people out there that want to hear the record, what they’re doin’ and what they’re sayin’. And, I know I do. I mean, do I buy songs off iTunes? Yeah. But I still want to hear some people’s records that are comin’ out this year.”
Kenny made his very first album in 1993, before the Internet was really a factor in social culture. He came along at the height of the CD era and has, of course, seen the entire explosion online, where he has his own website and even his own Internet music station, No Shoes Radio.
“I’ve watched it progress, and there’s some things I do like about it, and there’s some things that I don’t,” Kenny says. “I still believe that makin’ a record — a whole record — for the fans is important. I hope that never goes away, somebody wanting to hear a piece of music. It helps invest the audience into your music and into you as a person. And I sincerely hope that that doesn’t change.”
ESPN’s Five Minutes for the Fans featured Kenny Chesney this week, and the Q&A focused solely on sports. There are some great questions from fans and insightful answers from Kenny:
e7561x: Kenny, thinking of your songs, what would be the song you would run out of the tunnel to?
Kenny Chesney: It’d have to be something that was going to get me fired up. One of my first hits ever, a long time ago, was called “Whatever It Takes,” so maybe that. Yeah.
Tracy G: What is your greatest college sports memory as a fan?
Kenny Chesney: My favorite college sports memory is going to be about Tennessee football. My father took me, I remember as a kid, going to my first Tennessee football game and walking into Neyland Stadium and looking how big that place was and looking at the field, I was so excited to be there.
Carolina_Slim: Do you notice similarities between success on the stage and success on the gridiron?
Kenny Chesney: All the time. I mean, I think that’s one of the commonalities between what they do and what I do. I mean, we have a lot of things in common. We’re all in the spotlight, we’re all in the public eye, but we all still work very hard to do what we do and give a lot and sacrifice a lot. And it takes a lot of work to do what we do at the level we’re doing it, and they know that and you can see that.
David Green of NPR has a good interview with Kenny Chesney that mainly focuses on the new album Hemingway’s Whiskey, but also hits on a couple other topics including the July 2000 police horse incident:
That did happen. I was accused of it, but we didn’t really do that,” says Chesney. “I actually did get on a horse, but I didn’t know it was a police horse. It didn’t have anything on it saying it was a police horse. It was a big deal at the time, but it’s funny to look back on it now. It wasn’t funny at the time.”
Here’s Kenny discussing the single “Seven Days”:
Hemingway’s Whiskey comes after some tough and maturing years for Chesney, which makes “Seven Days” particularly worth noting.
“I think everybody in his life has that one person that they can’t mentally get rid of — maybe we’re with someone romantically and emotionally even for a short time,” Chesney says. “And the character of this song, it was seven days of his life, a week. I think we all have those people and the time that we’re with them, we have no idea the impact that they’re going to have on our lives later on. And I have that person. I think that a lot of people do.”
Green wonders if we can ask who that person is.
“You can ask, but I’m not going to answer!” says Chesney.
GAC will be interviewing Kenny Chesney soon and they want you to help them out with questions!
What to ask? Be creative with your questions! Don’t ask when he’s coming to your city because those questions won’t be chosen (you can check his official website for that info).
We’ll take the most unique questions to Kenny and then feature his answers on GACTV.com very soon in our Fan Q&A section. Hurry, our deadline for Kenny Chesney questions is Sunday, September 19 at 12 noon Central.
The Tennessean has an interview with Kenny Chesney where they talk about “The Boys of Fall” documentary. Here are a couple excerpts:
Q. In some ways, athletes die twice. And they have the second half of one life, and sometimes more, to mourn the death of their athletic life. So much of what you have in the video is people looking back?
A: Interviewing (two-time Super Bowl winning coach) Bill Parcells, he said something like, “Look, we’re all just riding the train. One day they’re going to ask us all to get off. And we shouldn’t be bitter about that because the experience of being on the train is so great.” And that’s life, too. No matter what level you make it to, enjoy it.
Q: Were you ever star struck, talking to these people?
A: When I sat down with Joe Namath at his home in Florida, I was like, “What am I doing here?” But, man, he was such a great guy to talk to, with so much passion and energy about the game of football. All these guys have different paths, every one. But they’re all incredibly passionate about what they believe to be true, and what their life is like because of the game of football. I walked out of the Namath interview going, “How can I apply what he said to my life?”
US Magazine has an interview with Kenny Chesney that is exclusively about football and his documentary The Boys of Fall:
Us: What was it like sitting down with your football heroes?
KC: Some of these people I knew, some of them I didn’t. I had never met Brett Favre in my life. But Brett and me will be friends forever now. He was just like the guys in my family, the guys I grew up with. When I landed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I’d never met him. I had his number and we were texting back and forth getting this interview set up. When I landed, I said ‘What’s for dinner?’ just joking with him. I got nothing back. I was like ‘Uh-oh, I pissed Brett Favre off.’ I got home and I sent him a message that said I was just kidding, just joking and still got nothing back. So we made it to his house, we did the interview, and after we got done with the interview, he said ‘I want you guys to come in here.’ And there were about 30 of us in this film crew. We go into his house and the reason he didn’t text me back was because he had gone and gotten a barbecue dinner for all of us. It was a crazy twist where all of a sudden we’re in Brett Favre’s house eating.
Kenny and Alan discussed “The Boys of Fall,” how his high school football coach inspired him, how his year “off” has been and why he went with Hemingway’s Whiskey for the title of the new album.
Watch Music Video for "Feel Like a Rock Star"
New Album Coming in June
Get Chesney and McGraw's New Single
Chesney and Tim McGraw Announce 2012 Tour
In a 
ESPN’s 
David Green of NPR has a good 
The Tennessean has an 
Cody Alan of 
