On The Cover: Kenny Chesney (Apr/May 2013)

Kenny Chesney never intended to make this record. There was never a point when any of these songs were in danger of becoming an album. Until life shifted and some songs he put on tape arose, Life On A Rock was just the moments in his life the songwriter/singer from Luttrell, Tenn. wanted to capture for himself.
“It’s easy to let those moments go,” says the man who’s sold over a million tickets to each of his past 10 tours, won the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year Award a combined eight times, had 24 No. 1 hits and sold over 30 million albums. “You get busy and let moments go. Other things come up, the moments pass…”
Written over time, written for no one but himself, Life On A Rock is a handful of postcards from the life Kenny Chesney has led when he’s not being the biggest ticket-seller of the 21st century. Culled from people, places, moments and feelings of a driven man at rest, it celebrates what life gives when you yield to its inherent rhythms and the joy of friendship, the world around you and slowing down.
“Most of these songs were written, but I didn’t have an emotional center or something that held them together,” Chesney allows of the most revealing project of his career. “Then, well, things happen… and you start to look at life differently, and you realize how precious what you have, what you had is.” There’s no getting around Chesney being the biggest ticket-seller of the 21st century, but part of what’s made him connect like very few artists is his ability to know where the fans are: to capture their lives and the dignity of being where you are. Joy, yes, absolutely, but also the deeper truth of small towns, real moments, the honest connection between friends, lovers, those moved on.
“I kind of believe the fans and their friends are just like the rest of my friends… There’s that certain place that’s the thread of their lives, but no matter where you go, that place stays with you: who you were, what you went through, the friends you made, loves you lost.”
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Like so much of Life On A Rock, the songs came together unconventionally. Having come of age as a young writer with the likes of Whitey Shafer and Dean Dillon, Chesney has a deep reverence for the creation of songs. He understands the process of writing for albums, but he also recognizes the power of capturing a small truth that holds a lot of lives.
“In that, I was able to really soul search, to evaluate – and really ask, ‘What do I want? What kind of artist do I want to be?’ You don’t think about that when you’re going 100 miles an hour, but when you do…”
When you do, you make Life On A Rock, an album of reflection, of fun, of laughter shared. You can embrace the euphoria of “Coconut Tree,” a duet with the ever quixotic Willie Nelson, the Tom Petty-esque swagger of “Pirate Flag,” the album’s one true insurrection-where-you-are anthem, or the contemplative “Happy On The Hey Now (A Song For Kristi).”
“That’s what I want: people to find their lives and their friends, their challenges, letting go’s and good-byes,” says Chesney. “In the end, I think we’re all so much the same different as we are, and that’s what this is about. If I can touch your heart or your life or your soul, then that’s what music is all about.”
Artist Name: Kenny Chesney
Label: Blue Chair Records/Columbia Nashville
Current Album: Life On A Rock
Current Single: “Pirate Flag”
Current Video: “Pirate Flag”
Current Producer(s): Buddy Cannon & Kenny Chesney
Hometown: Luttrell, Tenn.
Management: Morris Artists Management, Clint Higham
Booking: Dale Morris & Associates, Mike Betterton
Recent Hits: “Come Over,” “You And Tequila,” “Feel Like A Rock Star”
Awards: Four CMA Entertainer of the Year Awards and four ACM Entertainer of the Year Awards. He has nine Billboard Touring awards including seven ‘Top Package’ Awards for his tours
RIAA Certs to date: Kenny has sold more than 30 million albums including three that have been certified quadruple platinum. Additionally, he has more than 20 million digital transactions
Birthday: March 26
Interesting Facts: Produced two sports documentaries for ESPN, Boys of Fall and Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story.