Kenny Chesney

27:36I would go play a state fair or a club or whatever, and they would go, oh, that's the guy that sings that song. And oh, that's the guy that sings that song and that song. It wasn't until 2002 when we released the No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems album, and that's when it all took off. How many years in was that? 13 years. 13 years. Yeah. That's a long time. Long time. You know, I was making records, Rick, to fit a formula in a genre. That was the definition of success. And the reason people didn't know who I was was because there was a lot of people singing the same songs, mixing the records the same way, dressing the same way.

28:14And I was just trying to fit that formula. I was in survival mode for a long time. Yeah, you were trying to fit in. Trying to fit in and just trying to. And you succeeded at doing that. I succeeded at doing that. But during the time that I released my greatest hits record that had all the radio hits on it, I had about two and a half years of nothing, of not releasing music. And it afforded me the time to really take my time. And it was also a period of my life where I was changing. What do you think allowed that to happen? I was in, well, I went to the Virgin Islands to shoot a video for one of those disposable songs.

28:52And then I spent a lot of time down there. and all of a sudden I had a different, a completely different family there and a group of friends that I didn't have anywhere else in the world. They all had different religious beliefs. They all had different political beliefs. They all grew up, nine times out of 10, they were from New England. And after three or four years of that, I went, wow, you know, not only could I make music for the people that I've been making it for, which fit in this formulaic style that I was doing this narrow thing. I realized, oh, I can make music for these people too. And all of a sudden, the idea of who I've become, Kenny Chesney, that's where it all started to change.

29:37And it changed stylistically, it changed musically, it changed emotionally, mentally. All of a sudden, my heart was more open to new experiences, to new people, to different way of mixing my record, to everything. And that's where it all changed. It's interesting how just being in a different place is enough to just open your mind. Had I not done that, had I not met all those people, I would probably still be out there doing it at some level, you know. Yeah. But I would never have built an audience that was as universal of an audience that we did. Because I think that— Just met different kinds of people.

30:16Just because you were exposed to different kinds of people who thought differently, who truly did. I mean, like in the nature of the business, the life today with social media and everything, I don't know if you gave me that same scenario today. I'm not sure that my heart would be as open and I would be as open to new experiences and new people. Because one of the negative things about being at this place in my life is that I don't meet a lot of new people. And I don't like that. I don't let myself, I'm not as open as I was going to the Virgin Islands in the way I'm talking about now. And I wish I was.

30:55There's also something about island life that's really open and free. Yes. If you meet someone like in Hawaii or whatever, there's something about a level of acceptance. Yeah. And you feel closer to them than you would if you met them anywhere else. There's a connection to nature that's inherent in us. Yeah, it's very primal. That they keep and that many of us have lost growing up in industrialized places. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was so on fire. When I went down there, I mean, before I made the No Shoes album, when my life really changed, I was so curious as a human. And I was on fire with creativity.

31:38And I knew my life was changing. I just didn't know where it was going to take me, but I was just, I said, come on, bring it on. It was great. Right. Such a great feeling. So, yeah. And I don't, I mean, I get that. I get to still get that. I'm not saying I don't, but it's. First time is different though, because when it's a new experience, it's amplified in some way. Yeah. And when you've been doing this for a while, you run it, your first gets smaller, which is fine. Yeah. It's just the nature of life. Yeah. Yeah. That's true too.

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33:42Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Where would you say songs come from? Wow. For me, it's just, I get inspiration from... It's just other people, but creativity for me is one of the best gifts. The thing I love about creativity and where songs come from, wherever they come from, like you take something and you give the world something today that didn't exist yesterday. It's the best feeling in the world. It's the best feeling ever. And to know, it's almost like you have the answer to the last question that nobody else knows. You know what I mean? It's like you have a secret.

34:29Like you and I could write a song right now and we would, only us would know that it exists in the world until it comes out. I love that. And before that, it doesn't exist. And before that, there's nothing. There's a song you can sing. It's amazing. Yeah, that's the thing that always, I'm not comparing creativity to golf because I don't love golf. I don't play. But when I did play golf, it's like you spend all day out there hitting shitty balls and then you hit one that's perfect. That's the thing that keeps you coming back. I've always said writing songs was a lot like fishing. You can go out there one day and not get anything, but there's that one day where it's just magic.

35:03It's not in our control. That's right. Yeah. We're at the mercy of whatever. Whatever it is. You know, so that's where songs come from for me, whatever that source is, you know? And these people go to writing camps, and I get that. And, you know, okay, we're going to make an appointment to write a song. I get that. But the best songs come when they're lived. The writing camp sounds more like your earlier career. That's exactly right. Of the songs that fit. Well, I can tell you that we were on the road. I forgot. I think it was 2006. And we were playing Ohio State's basketball arena. And we had a night off, so we were there early.

35:42On that night off, Van Halen was playing the same arena. And Louie Messina, who had worked a lot with Van Halen and with Sammy especially, was promoting my tour and still is. But I said, Louie, I got to meet Sammy Hagar. So we went, you know, worked it out for me and the band. All of a sudden, we go backstage and there's Eddie without a shirt, you know, with hair, you know, doing his stuff. And here comes Sammy Hagar in this yellow jumpsuit and his red shoes and his blonde hair. And it was as if I had known him my whole life. Now, you take my road manager and I, David Farmer, we were kids. We were in his garage with pool sticks, acting like they were guitars listening to Montrose.

36:28And then here comes that guy. So me and Sammy became pretty instant friends. And then he invited me to come play his birthday party he has every year in Cabo. And I said, okay, we're coming. So we play. I'll bet we play three and a half hours. Wow. And then there was a club next to it called Squid Row. And me and the band went to that. Well, when I was in that club, I just felt restless. I felt uneasy for some reason. Everybody was having fun. And I was looking around at all, a lot of the guys in my band and some of the guys that I grew up with. And I don't know why I had this feeling, but I was going, you know, they've all got families and they've all got the lives they're building.

37:09And I started not feel bad about them for myself or whatever. I said, that's not, but I'm not doing that. And I just kept feeling like I needed to leave that club. And I left the club and I went to the house that Sammy got us overlooking the lights of Cabo. And I pulled out a notepad and I pulled my guitar out of the case and I sat out. I can still see the table. It was a glass, a round glass table with the pool deck. And I was out there by myself trying to figure out what it was I was feeling. I was 36, and I said, I don't have to figure all this out right now. Whatever you feel in the club, you don't, you know, it's just okay.

37:48It's okay to play at Sammy Hagar's birthday party, and this be what you're doing right now. And I just started writing down everything I was feeling, and that's where I wrote Beer in Mexico. I wrote it completely by myself in about a three-hour period, and by the time the band got back to the house that Sammy and got us that song was almost done. Now that's an example of where songs come from. It's lived. Can you play it? It's like, sit right here and have another beer in Mexico. Do my best, waste another day.

38:27Sit right here and have another beer in Mexico. Let the warm air melt these blues away

38:42That's where I started pushing the choruses too. I didn't really push until the end. I'm a sucker for pushing, but the sun comes up, the sun sinks down, and I've seen them both in this tourist town. Up for days in a rage just trying to search my soul. for all the answers and the reasons why I'm at these crossroads in my life and really don't know which way to go. So I'll just sit right here, have another beer in Mexico. Yeah. You know, so that's an example of, I would have never have written that song. Let's just say that you called me one day and, hey, let's write a song. We're going to make an appointment and then we're going to sit in a room.

39:21Wouldn't happen like that. I would never have written that. It was based on the experience. And hearing you tell the story, I hear the song as being therapeutic in that moment. No question. There were some years that, you know, some less generous critics would have looked at that title and went, oh, this is just a Kenny Chesney party song. Yeah, whatever. But it was a true portrait of my soul at the time. Yeah. You know, it really was. It feels so personal in the moment, but other people feel like that too. And that's why it translates. We all have feelings, turns out. As it turns out, we all have feelings, yeah.

39:59You know, we spend all this time trying to find commonality. Yeah. And sometimes we make it harder than it has to be, you know, because songs come from lived experiences. Yeah. And I have written songs where, you know, it's been an appointment and some of them made my record. Some have been hits. But real commonality, it's hard. Do you still spend much time in Virgin Islands? Not as much as I used to. Some. I still love it, but with social media, a lot of stuff changes. It's just like, ah, what used to be a place of real peace. It's not the same. I take what I want from it, if that makes sense.

40:35Are you writing songs all the time? Not all the time. I wrote some a little bit in Vegas because I was still, but it's really hard for me to write on the road. I have to be off that, out of that space to really write. Some people can do it. I can't. I used to could. I mean, I wrote a couple of songs on the road, but I have to be out of that space and more in a quieter space for me. Also, your shows are very, I'll just say, high energy. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if the high energy lends itself to the going inside and feeling what you need to feel to write. Yeah, and when you're like, and you wake up the next day and I go to the gym and the next thing you know, it's two in the afternoon and the next thing you know, it's just, ah, ah.

41:22A lot of energies being put out. And this anticipation, which I love that energy. I'm so thankful for my adult life because live music is one of the most amazing things we have in our world. And to be able to be a person that gets to do that, that gets to give the world that. But the thing I love about it is that no two nights are ever the same, ever. Now, I eat really early when I'm on the road. I'll eat around 4.30. And then I'll lay down for a couple hours. And then, you know, you've got to say hi to who you've got to say hi to. Yeah. And then the next thing you know, it's showtime. Those things are the same.

41:58But every night is different. The shared experience is what I love so much. How did the live show develop from the early days when you were writing the songs to fit in? Yeah. To what it's become? Was there like a moment when it changed? Well, I mean, when my song Young came out, that was the first single off the No Shoes album, that just took us to a different place. Now, had that been my first single, things wouldn't have changed that much. But I remember, I had 17 hit records. And 13 years. And 13 years of building a fan base. So when Young hit and then everything else came, we already had a show.

42:37We already had recognizable music. and people were coming to the show to hear Young, but they went, oh my God, he's got two hours of material. And so, Rick, it was on. It was everything that we did was based around the show. And that goes back to what I was saying earlier. I couldn't help but feed the persona. I couldn't stop it. And all of us, everything we did, every morning we woke up was to feed that energy. And I'm glad we did. I mean, it's fantastic. but I'm learning now that, that I got to take care of the person too. So you also want to be able to do it for a long time. And the thing that stops that is not taking care of the person.

43:21That's exactly right. Yeah. So, you know, I, I'm very particular about what I put into my body now. I'm very particular, honestly, about who I hang out with because energetically, energetically, it's just, I want to be available for everyone. But so if you give energy to people that drain that energy for everyone else. I'm learning how to navigate some of that. How would you say your relationship to music has changed over the course of your life? Hmm. I think that my first producer was Barry Beckett. Barry Beckett produced my Capricorn record and my first couple of records after that. And I played in so many clubs that I just played hard and sang hard, you know, because of the nature of it.

44:08and I got into the studio and I was singing hard in the mic and I one of the things that I take with me and I still I mean man I miss Barry you know and and one of the things I take with me is Barry came into the vocal booth one night and he he goes I want you to think of you know you're you're doing it right he goes but I want you to think about the world out there hearing this song he goes how do you want them to feel hearing this song? He goes, I want you to do what you're doing, but I want you to back off the mic some, and I want you to put a smile on it. And I've tried to infuse that moment into all of my music.

44:49Now, I didn't know how to do it. I did it, especially on those early songs. But I think for me, having Barry Beckett in my life early. By the way, have you ever seen the Rick Hall documentary about the Muscle Shows thing? Barry Beckett was one of those players. I wept because making music in the studio has been my whole adult life. This console came from that studio. This was the original Muscle Shows console. Oh my God, that's unbelievable. My relationship with that was was really intense. But for me, I mean, it's been a struggle because I do like to make records that feed that energy we were talking about on stage and the machine of it all.

45:35But I'm also, I've made a lot of records that I wrote on my boat that's very acoustic and over here, which early on confused my audience. We thought you were this guy, but you're this guy? I'm like, well, I'm both. It's just another part of me. And it makes a two and a half hour show more interesting. If it's all the same, it gets boring no matter what it is. So my relationship with that, and I don't know when that kind of record's coming. You know, it's always in the works. But creatively, you know, sometimes I've learned not to. But early on, I edited myself to a fault. Always thinking about, okay, the live show, what's this going to mean?

46:15How are people out there in the grass in the amphitheaters going to respond to this? not the season ticket holders the grass so i thought about that all the time and that can that can edit your relationship with your music some yeah it's just a limitation of like yes they all have to do this one thing yes so when i made my be as you are album i didn't know i was making the record at the time but it's still one of my favorite records i ever made because i wrote it over a five-year period, not for any album cycle. I was just writing my experiences, and I was writing about characters I've met down in the islands and their stories, and none of those songs, none of them fit on any of the other albums because Joe Galante heard that, and he goes, no, no.

47:03Right? That doesn't fit with all the stuff. They only fit together. And so that became the B's UR. It was called Songs from an Old Blue Chair. But that was a true portrait of my soul, which is a whole other relationship with my music. Do you want to play one of those? Sure. I was in the Virgin Islands, New Year's Eve. This was, what's the guy that predicted the end of the world, 2000? Nostradamus. And they say, like, you know, the world's going to end in the year 2000. So everybody was kind of antsy, right? Y2K. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, and I was really drunk on the beach one night.

47:42And I was sitting in this old blue chair and I had one of those Tervis tumbler cuffs about that tall, full of rum and coke. And it was probably two in the morning. And I was on the beach and I put that glass between my legs and laid back. I fell asleep. And I woke up with the sun coming right over Tortola, right? and I had mosquito bites everywhere. I went back to the house. I slept a couple hours and I got up and started writing this song. And again, I would have never written something like this unless it was lived. So.

48:18Minute, minute. There's a blue rocking chair Sitting in the sand Weather by the storms And well-oiled hands It sways back and forth With the help of the winds And seems to always be there Like an old trusted friend I've read a lot of books Wrote a few songs Looked at my life Where it's going, where it's gone I've seen the world through a bus windshield, but nothing compares to the way that I see it. To the way that I see it. To the way that I see it when I sit in that old blue chair. Beautiful. Beautiful song. But that's not hammered down on stage, Kenny Chesney. That's a whole other relationship.

49:28In a long answer, that's a whole other side to my relationship with my music. And I love that side. For sure. But if you're playing SoFi Stadium in L.A., I don't know that you pull Old Blue Chair out. You might. You might. In the middle. In the middle. You might. It's quick, though. I mean, it's like... Get a little stage in the middle of the audience. No question. It's a good vibe. Yeah. So the relationship with my music is a little... Like I love being that person, but I also love being the other person. So I've had numerous people ask me if I'm ever going to do just a show of that kind of stuff.

50:04And I might. Yeah. You know, I think it would be really great. I mean, I saw one year the Stones did it and I thought it was really brilliant. Not that I would steal from them, but I thought the idea was great. In the same calendar year, they did clubs, they did theaters, they did arenas, and they did stadiums all in the same year. and I would imagine that every one of those shows in those environments were different. Totally different. And I just, I love that idea and I think I might, I'm going to go ahead and apologize to the guys. It's such a cool idea. But you have to have a scope of a catalog to do it to pull that off, but maybe we'll do that one day.

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52:17You said you went to church growing up? Yeah. How did that influence your life? Well, my grandmother was very religious. We grew up in an area where we had, just in the nature of our community, we leaned on certain things. We had school, we had sports, we had our friends, and we had church. and I went to vacation Bible school every summer, but it was the first time in church that I heard three-part harmony. Yeah. And I went, oh, wow, what's that? This is great. You know, one of my first memories of hearing that and how connected I was to it, you know, I didn't know I was going to be that disconnected to it, but it was the first time that I heard music that made me feel something.

53:02Yeah. I didn't know what it was. It seems like magic. Yeah. And I think as a child, you're so impressionable. And things you experience young sets such an emotional blueprint for the rest of your life. Yeah. Like, I don't have kids, but I always said there's a singer-songwriter that played in Jimmy Buffett's band. His name is Mack McAnally. And Mack's just my favorite singer-songwriter ever. And he has this amazing voice. He's a great, great player. And I've written a lot of songs with him. But I always said, because of what I'm talking about, that if I ever had a child, now, of course, the mother would have to be okay with this.

53:42But I would have wanted Mac in the delivery room because the first thing I want that child to hear was Mac McAnally playing music and his voice singing in the room. Wow. Because it sets such an emotional blueprint. Like if you're born into chaos, you're probably going to have chaos in your life. If you're born into peace and positive energy, then it just sets in such a different tone. It's also something that happens when people are singing devotion. It's got a different energy to it. It's got a different energy to it. It goes through you. Yes. Yeah. And I'm very spiritual. I don't think you can do what I do and not be spiritual.

54:23My relationship with religion has changed. Yeah. But it was in church that I was first touched by music that said something that spoke to me, where it wasn't so right here. All of a sudden, you heard the bottom third and the top third. It goes, what? That's beautiful. Right? But I was in church a lot. You know, you're taught a certain way as a kid. And I grew up Southern Baptist. And you're taught, this is the way. Everything else is wrong. And you go on the road and you have 120 employees, all from like the Virgin Islands. You meet this melting pot, this really eclectic group of people that you all of a sudden living life with.

55:10And like I said, when I was talking about the Virgin Islands, all of different political beliefs, religious beliefs. You know, there's people from all over that have traveled much different journeys to be on the road with you going down together. Yeah. Well, over a period of a lot of summers, you get to know and love these people. It's like, okay, what if something happened and we were all killed the same night? Am I to believe that they're going to go to hell because they have the wrong religion? No, that's my point on religion. So that's, it's crazy. Like where I grew up within the same county, there were churches fighting other churches because they believed differently.

55:51And within the same 20 miles, I was like, mm. And two Christian churches that just had slightly different beliefs. Slightly. Yeah, yeah. Different interpretations. And we couldn't hang with those kids at school. We couldn't. Yeah, yeah. It was like, ah. See, I don't think that's how it was originally, in my opinion, designed. I think there's something much bigger than all of that that is full of positive energy, light, and love. And I want to believe in that. I have a whole other thing. Tell me. With people. Well, I don't like TV preachers. None? I don't know. I just think like they've all like, especially when physical product was a big deal.

56:31You know what I mean? Maybe they have. They were selling something? Yeah. They're always like, they're making millions of dollars off the, off the insecurities of all these people. Now you buy my DVD and we're going to change you. I don't know. I mean, it's good. I mean, God bless them, I guess. I mean, but I always felt really weird about that. Would you say if you didn't have your church upbringing, you wouldn't be the same person? But there's that. So there's something. So it served you in your life. It's still serving me, I guess, because my parents, my grandparents, it keeps you from being rudderless.

57:08And I'm thankful for that. Yeah. But I don't know. I guess I've always had a problem, especially in my adult life, and especially after I went on the road and traveled the world and met all these wonderful people full of love and light. They all can't be bad. No. And I would have never have met Rick Rubin had I not expanded my life and been in the music business. And I would have never met Barry Beckett. I don't know Barry Beckett's religious affiliation at all. We didn't care. We made music together. We loved each other. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. I think what they're selling is certainty. And I'm in the corner of I don't really know.

57:48Right? I just know I feel I know love when I see it and feel it. How would you describe the spiritual side of your music? I think, first of all, I mean, early on, you had to find that part of yourself. Like, for me, it was all just so formulaic, right? But the song I just played, You Old Blue Chair, that is a, that was, that came from the heart. That came from a lived experience. Yeah. I think there has to be, to take your audience down or to build one or to connect on any level, there has to be some sort of commonality somewhere along the way. And you have to dig in a little deeper. It can't all just be beer in Mexico, even though that was a deeper song than the poster says.

58:36I would like to think there's a spiritual side to a lot of it. Well, I imagine to connect to that many people, there has to be something going on bigger than the human Kenny. Yes. There's something bigger happening in that room. Right. I would like to think that the music that we've made over the years, that it had a positive impact on our life. And you can tell, Rick, when people come to our shows, that something in there touched them somewhere. Aside from, yeah, this is really loud. We feel the kick drum coming through our chest. This is really fun. It has to be something more than that. And I'm not sure which songs did that, honestly.

59:20But I can tell when I'm looking out into the audience that this has meant something more to them than just hearing it on the radio. I mean, they've lived with it. And there's a spiritual part of that that I never knew existed at East Tennessee State when I was in the bluegrass band or my first 13 years on the road. It's a communion. Yes. There's a connective tissue that I would like to think that is spiritual in nature. Yeah. Like a common thing they all felt. Tell me about how you become the person you are on stage. Does it happen automatically, or do you have to do something to get into that state?

59:57I know people that it takes for them to go on stage at 9 o 'clock. They have to start getting ready at 2 in the afternoon. And I don't know how to explain this, but I can be ready to go in four minutes. Wow. You can turn it on like a light switch. Wow. And I can let it go like that. Like I'm so thankful, like I talked about earlier, that I don't carry that persona with me in my everyday life. It just wouldn't work for my life now. I've let that ego part go. Thanks to a lot of knights in the jungle. So that ego part of me is gone. Now, I had a really good friend who played for Drew Brees who played for the Saints.

1:00:35Okay. And Drew is one of the best guys in the world off the field. Now you get him on the field and he's got just enough ego to want to kill you. And that's what it takes to do his job. That's what it takes to do his job. Now, for me to be up there, I've got to have enough of that to be great at what I do. But I'm telling you, back in the day, I got three or four friends with me on the road that I went to high school and college with. Two of those guys run my merch company out there, and the other guy is my role manager. For years, we would play college PlayStation football on the road, and we were addicted to it.

1:01:11and I've held shows before so we could finish a game. It's time to go on. We're 10 minutes late from going on. I'm back. I'm not even in my show close yet. I'm back there playing PlayStation football trying to win.

1:01:26So I know of at least 10 times that happened. Yeah. And the audience is going, well, is Kenny nervous? What's going on? I'm back there going, motherfuckers. That's so funny. Right? But I could quit that. and look you're really lucky very lucky and i can put a pair of jeans boots shirt my palm leaf straw cowboy hat and all of a sudden i walk to the stage and it's like that and i'm laser focused and ready to go do you travel anywhere interesting while you're in college no there was three or four of us in that bluegrass band that had never been out of east Tennessee ever. Like now I went to on vacation.

1:02:09I went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with my family and to Daytona Beach, Florida. But other than that, I'd never went any further than church, the ballpark and school. Never. All of a sudden here we, here I am a sophomore in college and one of my guitar teachers in college named Jack Toddle. He says, we've been invited to come to Moscow for this music festival. Wow. And it was just a bluegrass band we were, you know. And so we went to Moscow, and there were other groups there from other countries. There was a Russian group that was a little different. It was folkier. It was still acoustic instruments, but it wasn't traditional G-run bluegrass, you know, that we were playing.

1:02:54And there was a group from Italy, and there was a group, I don't know, just from other countries. And there was about 10 of those groups there. And we had interpreters, but it was really broken communication, right? For the first three or four days. We were there for 10 days. And for the first three or four days, we kind of stayed in our group and kind of stayed in our zone. Little by little, we started jamming with the other players. And little by little, we all formed our own groups within that. And we were learning from them and they were learning from us. And all of a sudden, we had written a few songs together.

1:03:32And all of a sudden, we were friends. We still couldn't speak the language. Yeah. But we played the same notes. So beautiful. And that is the power of music. That was the first time that I ever felt how strong that was and how connected that made people. And I remember thinking how blessed I've been. And by the time we left in this bus to go to the airport, I mean, we didn't want to say goodbye to anybody because we knew that that was the last time we would see them. But for seven or eight days in Moscow in this really shitty university dorm room, I mean, in any hour of the night, you would see different people in there playing music and writing songs and jamming together.

1:04:14So cool. Great experience. That's the power of music. What makes a great record?

1:04:24Spontaneity, my opinion. I've been guilty of making it too perfect. I've been guilty of like another Barry Beckett-ism. Barry taught me early on that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes you can mix the hit out of it. Yeah, overdo it. Overdo it, you know, and I've been guilty of not knowing when to walk away. I've been guilty of maybe sometimes walking away too soon, especially in the middle of exhaustion and making really important decisions in the middle of exhaustion. But to me, what makes a great record is when something just shows up out of nowhere and it's just the spontaneity of it all.

1:05:03And you've been there. It's just magic. You can't explain it. It's a gift. And you can't plan that. You can go in with a great artist and songs and you can mix it the way you want. But sometimes it sounds like it's got 100 pounds of bricks on its back. And sometimes it sounds like magic. Yeah. that's the best way I can explain what's happened to me. I mean, yes, you've got to have great players and you've got to have, you know, the song. The songs have to be solid or whatever, but we've all taken great songs with great players into the studio and it didn't make a great record. And also sometimes songs that you don't think that much of when you record them all of a sudden blossom into something you couldn't imagine.

1:05:42Oh, yeah, that wouldn't even... Yes, that's not even... That you didn't even have for the record. No. Right? I've been in the process of making this record on a friend of mine named Cat Higgins, who's a great songwriter. She's written a lot of songs for me. And we've been in the process of making her record for a while. And we were in there and she wanted to recut a couple of things, which we did. And it was a good decision. But it goes to this point about not overdoing it and magic happening in the studio. I said, what's one of your favorite songs when you were growing up? And she goes, Blue Bayou by Linda Ronstadt.

1:06:17I said, perfect. Perfect example. Yeah. And we went and listened to it, and it's not perfect, but it's magic. I mean, if you sit and listen to that, as someone that's mixed a lot of records in his life, there's a lot of things that in the moment I would have probably done different. Yeah. But it's magic. Caught a moment. It caught a moment, and that's what makes a great record. And there's a lot of records that you and I both grew up on. If we go back and analyze them now, my own records. Like, I can't listen to anything, you know, that was early because I just, I'm too inside it. And there's so many things I would have done different.

1:06:54And not overdoing it makes a great record.

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1:09:15How important are lyrics to you? Well, I grew up in a very lyrical town. And I got to Nashville when some of the songwriters were bigger figures than the artist. I feel very fortunate to have started my career as a songwriter at Acuff Rose with a bunch of people who were true craftsmen of songs. So lyrics have always been very important to me. Like the first time I heard you in Tequila, right? I didn't write that song. But the first time, my friend Matresa Berg and Dina Carter wrote that song. And she'd sent it to me before, but it was a female singing it. It was Matresa singing it. And I said, well, send that to me with a male singer.

1:09:58I just want to hear it. Yeah. And I'll never forget it. I was, well, it was the year I met you. I believe it was 2007. And I was in Santa Monica and I was driving home. It was magic. It was sunset. And it's just one of those drives. And you go, oh, this is why I live here. And I put that song on. And the lyrics of that song, like, it was just unlike hearing a male sing it. I went, oh, I can do that. That's the power of those lyrics. Because a lot of people collab. for marketing and duets and awards and just stuff, you know, for different reasons. I haven't done a ton of them, but the lyrics and the song has to be there first.

1:10:37So I had, I left Malibu and I went back to Nashville to record You and Tequila and I had the track for a little while, but I didn't want someone that people would have just, okay, yeah, that's, we would expect that person to sing within the format or whatever. I had to have a specific voice, and I didn't know who that voice was yet. Well, my friend Holly Gleason sent me a live record of this girl named Grace Potter from Burlington, Vermont. She's amazing. And I put it in my computer, and it was on my iTunes. And Rick, I could, at the time, and it's even more now, I could hit shuffle on my iTunes, and it wouldn't repeat a song for a month.

1:11:18I had so much music in there. Well, I was at my house in the Virgin Islands. It was a clear night. I was looking up at this endless, beautiful sky, and I heard this voice on my pool speakers. And it was Grace Potter singing a song called Apologies. And I went, that's it. That's the voice. And it was sent. I mean, I'm telling you, it was like, without being cliche, the stars were aligned. And I called Holly the next day. I said, this Grace Potter person singing this song, that's the voice for you in tequila. Grace was in Europe, and she had just landed in the States. I don't know where, but we had sent her my version of you in tequila.

1:12:00Now, all Grace knew of me was she thinks my tractor's sexy. Then they played that in Burlington, Vermont. That's all she knew of Kenny Chesney. So when she first heard the name, she was like, I don't think so. But going back to the lyrics, the song, she listened to it, and she said, I'm going to do this. and the next day she was in Nashville. It was on my birthday and we went into the studio to sing You and Tequila together and we went to dinner that night after and we had some drinks, a big dinner and celebrated my birthday and the fact that we just sang a great song together never knowing that it was going to end up being a life friendship.

1:12:42That's the power again of music. Let's listen to that song. You play first and then we'll sing.

1:12:52Baby, here I am again Kickin' dust in the canyon wind Waitin' for that sun to go down Made it up Moor Holland Drive And hell-bent on gettin' high High above the lights of town

1:13:20Now you and tequila make me crazy Run like poison in my blood

1:13:33One more night could kill me, baby One is one too many One more is never enough Never. Now you put Grace Potter's, if you want to play it, like listen to Grace Potter sing that song, it takes it to a completely different place. Let's hear a little of you and Grace.

1:14:09But see, Grace was unexpected. Yeah. Her voice hadn't been burned within the format.

1:14:18Baby, here I am again Kicking dust in the canyon Waiting for that sun to go down Made it up more Holland Drive Hellbent on getting high High above the lights of town

1:14:47You and tequila make me crazy

1:14:54Like poison in my blood

1:15:01One more night could kill me baby One is one too many One more is never enough

1:15:2130 days and 30 nights Been putting up a real good fight There were times I thought you'd win And it's so easy to forget The bitter taste of morning love I swore I wouldn't go back there again

1:15:50You and tequila make me crazy Run like poison in my blood

1:16:04One more night could kill me, baby One is one too many One more is never enough When it comes to you All the damage I could do It's always your favorite sin That do you in

1:16:42Well, that's a cool song, but it's not the same without Grace. Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. So that's a, the lyrics had to be there, you know? So it's like, that's an example of, that's not marketing. That is, that is. Yeah, it's just what it needed. It is what it is. I love the story of how you came to know her just by hearing her voice. Just by hearing her voice. Yeah. And see, that's an example of kind of what I talked to you about in Russia. Like, I didn't, I didn't know Grace. I didn't know anything about her. She didn't know anything about me other than she thinks my character is sexy. We joke a little bit about, because she had this kind of, she had a much different audience than I did.

1:17:18I had this core country audience, and I was building it, and it was wider than most, right? But still, a lot of her fans in her world wasn't coming to the normal Kenny Chesney show ever. So when we did this, and we joke about it, A lot of my fans were going, who the fuck? And all of her fans were going, why the fuck?

1:17:47That's really funny. And it's really true, though. But once they heard it, they went, oh, okay, this makes sense. It works. They play the same notes, as it turns out. Makes me want to hear a whole album of you guys singing together. We thought about it. Yeah, be beautiful. No, and she wants to, I want to. is just getting it there. But yeah, something that organic and wonderful. Just beautiful. And I don't know if we lock ourselves up and write all the songs. I don't know. But maybe or we just find great songs. I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters. As long as the songs are great, it doesn't really matter.

1:18:20As long as the songs are great. You don't get extra credit for writing it yourself. No. No, it's like, wow, thank God. If I had insisted on writing all the songs, there is a third of my life that it wouldn't exist in my life. Yeah. I get asked advice, like I said, a lot now. I don't know how I am with advice because I just know how I did it. And the way I did it, there's a piece of it that a lot of people don't want to hear, and that is work. Tell me about some things that you learned about the music business being in it this long. What would you tell your 18-year-old self about the industry? I would have definitely have tried to teach him patience because it's only human behavior to want it all at once.

1:19:01and I did. I am so thankful that I didn't get it when I wanted it. It wouldn't have worked the same way. I wouldn't have had the skill set. No, it's perfect the way it happened. Everything that's happened to me, it would have crushed me. There was a reason that I was in AA and AAA baseball for 13 years. That kid didn't know patience. He just wanted it all at once. The music business taught me patience. It forced me to have it. But even though that's all, I mean, so much of it has changed Because everything today is so automatic. Going back to Springsteen, he told me that him and the guys, you know, early on would take a train from Jersey to New Orleans, do a gig and take a train back.

1:19:38Right? I mean, this is early on. I mean, like. Yeah, but still. That's wanting it. That's having, willing it to happen and getting better at your craft and. Whatever it takes. Yeah, but truly loving it so much. That's just what you do. I'm proud of being on the road this long because I sincerely believe that if my life hadn't turned out the way it has and I've been fortunate enough to write some songs and record some songs and do what we do, I would still be doing it somewhere. I'm convinced of it. It's like an inherent need. I need to do this. It's what you were born to do. Yes. Tell me about the Hall of Fame.

1:20:15Wow. I'm from East Tennessee, and there are some people that are from East Tennessee that were in the Hall of Fame that to me were bigger than life mythical figures. I mean, like it was Dolly Parton from East Tennessee. Chet Atkins is from East Tennessee. I could walk from my grandmother's house to Chet Atkins' front door on the same street. And one of the best songwriters and one of my best friends now is named Dean Dillon. He wrote so many great songs, and he's in the Country Music Hall of Fame. All those people were from East Tennessee. So for me to add my name to that list, I never thought it was even possible.

1:20:50Right. I was told in February of last year that I was going to go into the Hall of Fame. So I had all the way to October to think about it. And it didn't really sink in. It didn't hit me. And honestly, I don't know that I truly accepted it. And I had gratitude, but I'm not sure in my brain that I accepted it just yet. The night of the induction. Where did it take place? In Nashville at the Country Music Hall of Fame. And there's a theater there where they do that. But before that, they have this induction pre-ceremony. And the only people that are allowed in the room are the living members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

1:21:30It's like they welcome you in. And like I said, not to say that I didn't appreciate it and didn't have gratitude towards it. I just didn't accept it that much until that night, until that moment. Because they walk you into the rotunda where the plaques are held. and every living there's only 100 I was number 158 so there's 158 people in the history of this format that are up there and when you walk in they say ladies and gentlemen country music hall of famer Kenny Chesney what that does to you it's surreal in that moment yeah I it was real yeah it was real and surreal and I was still having a hard time accepting it but I was like I was looking at everybody and all of a sudden I was in that room and I get emotional thinking about it because that was, that's, I had a lot of heroes and friends in that room and I was, Did you know most of the people in the room or no?

1:22:29No, no. Willie Nelson's in that room. I mean, it just, it just seemed unbelievable. Yeah. You know, but when they say your name in that moment, that does something to you. I mean, it was so emotional. And I was so thankful that we go back to, you know, it goes back to me being in church here in Three Part Harmony. It goes back to the trip to Russia. It goes back to every Friday night that I played high school football, we would run out of the locker room to Born to Run. It fired us up so much. And it just made me think about all these times in my life for music where it wasn't in the front of my brain.

1:23:11It was just back here in the room waiting to happen. And it was all these pieces of my life that was orchestrated, that was saying, okay, not yet. All of that came to me as they said my name that night as I was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. And I don't know how to explain what that feels like. It's just a very surreal moment. I was lucky enough to sit there and get inducted and have both my parents sit beside me. Wow, beautiful. And when you're 58, that's a big deal. Their minds must have been blown. Blown. My mom, well, the whole night, she just had my hand and my arm and squeezing it really tight.

1:23:47It was great to have that experience with her and my dad, you know? It probably meant even more to them than to you. Oh, no question for them to be there with me. Unbelievable. Because, you know, my dad and I, you know, we don't have a lot in common. We have sports. And I've learned over the years that that's enough. Right. So our relationship for a while was strained at best, but to have sports and to have him there and us share that, I'll never forget it. It's also different than any other kind of award is a competition between artists. This is not that. There's no competition. No, and you can't buy yourself into this.

1:24:24You're invited into a club of the all time. because some of those award shows, you know, people block vote and they, it's real, but it's, I've learned over the years that awards are, they're, you know, they're important when you're young, I think. After a while, it's okay. But this - There's also something about which song is better than another song or what artist - Yeah, who says that? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's all apples and oranges every time. Who's to say one person's creativity is so much more superior than this one? It's insane. I hate that part of it. Yeah.

1:24:56But this is different. But this is different. This is, you have to make some sort of, they call it an indelible mark. And for them to recognize that and to care, this is really cool, you know? And so, yeah, you can't buy your way into it. You can't, you can't market. You can't politic for it. It's just given to you, you know? So I'm very, I feel very fortunate and very thankful. How long does it take you to fall asleep after a show? I haven't slept in 10 years. and I'm working on it. But, you know, I have a hard time relaxing. This side of my brain turns this way. This side turns this way. And I meet somewhere in the middle of all that.

1:25:39So I have a hard, for years, I've had a hard time sleeping. One day, I'm sure I'll calm down. But when I'm not doing that, you know, I've got my own SiriusXM radio station. I'm programming that. I'm sending stuff in. Okay, I hate that. This doesn't, you know, stuff we love five years ago. just get rid of that. We know it was, let's play the new Grace Potter record. Let's play whatever. It's fun. It's fun curating stuff. I love it. I love it. But that's just another thing to turn the screw on. I read somewhere that you would end your tour every year in the same place. We still do. How did that come to be?

1:26:16Because I love sports and within sports, I've always been very superstitious. Always. is. So there was a year that we opened our tour at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football stadium, and it was on fire, which is different than any other year. And that whole year was just just incredible. I forgot. It was like 2007, I think. And we ended it in Foxborough, Massachusetts at the Patriots football stadium at Gillette Stadium. Since then, we have opened every tour in Tampa and we have closed every year with two nights at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. And it's all out of superstition. That's amazing. Because I...

1:27:00Yeah, you know it works. And I tell Louis Messina, I said, don't mess with it. Whatever in the middle we do, we do. But we're opening in Tampa and we're closing in Foxboro. And people know that that's where it's going. They travel to those places to be a part of the open and the close. Are you superstitious in other ways in your life no no by not i think of it i know someone that won't park their car unless the odometer ends in threes and they'll drive around until that happens yes i'm not that way so it doesn't control my life but i don't know because i was superstitious in in sports in my younger life you like wear the same lucky socks yeah or i would like yeah i this is really gross but But we went on, I can't believe I'm telling you the story on your face.

1:27:51We went on a little winning streak in high school football. And I mean, this is really gross. Like we didn't wash our anything, our undershirt or underwear, anything for like a month. You know, sweat and dirt and everything. But we were superstitious. Finally, we lost. I mean, okay, we get to wash our clothes. but it was to that point so when that one of my life changed out there and we started every year like as i'm sitting here talking to you right now i know i'm doing this fear we start in about seven weeks and that aside next summer we're already planning what we're going to do

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