Itโs rare for an artist almost four decades into a career to have firsts. Last year, Kenny Chesney had three: first solo and first country artist to headline the Sphere in Las Vegas, induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame and his first New York Times Best Seller, โHeart Life Music.โ
Called โa love letter to the journey,โ the book took readers on a ride through the places, faces and events that shaped a populist American music career for the East Tennessean. Chesney has built a massive fan base called โNo Shoes Nationโ on high-energy shows and songs that celebrate the notion of working hard, playing harder and always reaching for the positive in whateverโs happening.
With a second Sphere residency kicking off this month, Chesney sat down with his memoir co-author Holly Gleason to talk about writing the book, his life and whatโs ahead.
We are here to have an author-on-author conversation about the process, what you learned about your lifeโฆ
Fantastic!
The thing about this book: You didnโt want to do it when we started.
No, I didnโt. Because I didnโt know if there was a story there. We have been working really hard for a really long time, and Iโve been so busy creating; if Iโm not creating, Iโm putting out what I created.
Thereโs always a good reason to not be still enough to write a book. Over time, you wore me down, to make me pause, and make reflect. It is a very unique story. I think if youโre young and you have a dream, no matter if itโs music or whatever, you can take something from this.
And Iโm glad we did this. You, Mauro [DiPreta, executive editor at William Morrow], everybody involved were, โYou wanna write this book?โ I thought, โYeah, this sounds great.โ
Then thereโs writing it, and then thereโs putting it out. I truly enjoyed the process of both.
Kenny Chesney performs in Charlotte
(Jill Trunnell)
When we were starting the process, you realized the way you chased your dream and developed your talent into what became a substantial career in music isnโt done anymore.
Anything worth achieving in chasing your dream, if you get it all at once, itโs not the same. If youโre young, you want it all at once; itโs human nature. But thereโs something to getting better at what you do, being ready. Iโm glad now I didnโt get it all at once. I was able to learn, to grow into what I wanted.
It will shock people what Lower Broadway was.
It was a piece of old Nashville thatโs slowly disintegrated. It was a real historical lesson in our genre and our town; the belly of how our music was created, and how magical that time was. Now the soul of what I saw is gone.
Tell me about the Turf Club.
When I moved to Nashville, there was no place to [sit and] play. I found out I could go down to Lower Broadway, and play in all these places โ if you had the โฆ
Moxie? Courage?
Yeah, if you had the courage to go down there. It was very unique, a lot of characters. There were a lot of bars that were there when Waylon [Jennings] and Willie [Nelson] and Kris [Kristofferson], all these people were coming upโฆ I got to see that through the Turf Club.
It was the first time I really learned how to talk to an audience, read a room as an entertainer.
You were going to be a baseball player.
When I played high school football, I was this size: 140 pounds soaking wet. I played wide receiver, a average athlete. For me to be on the field at any level, I had to work.
My father was a coach, and he instilled: You may not be the most talented, but be someone they can count on. Be accountable. Thatโs where I first learned no matter what you do, there are things you can have that donโt take any talent at all. Be coachable, show up, have discipline. Work ethic? You canโt replace that.
Iโve taken everything Iโve learned playing team sports, setting a specific standard for yourself and having everybody buy into that standard, great things can happen.
If you donโt have great people, youโre swimming upstream. Thatโs in music, sports, corporate America. What we do out there now โ rolling down the road โ is a team sport thatโs confused with music.
You realize no sports. East Tennessee State University has an actual course in bluegrass. You took all that focus and drive and transferred it. Is that fair?
I was at East Tennessee State University, kinda rudderless. I didnโt really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I had this thread of music in my life since I was a child. I started playing music. I learned to play guitar; I was playing in a few places. Then I joined the ETSU Bluegrass Band โฆ
Thatโs how I met Alison Krauss and a lot of guys in her band Union Station: Barry Bales, Adam Steffey, Tim Stafford. Those guys were part of the ETSU Bluegrass Band when I joined. Thatโs where I first learned to play music with a group.
My father told me, โTo get better at sports, play with people who are older โ and better โ than you. Thatโs how you get better than the people your age.โ
Thatโs exactly what happened at East Tennessee State. I was playing with virtuoso musicians who were much better than Iโd ever be. I got better pretty quickly.
The other gift you got from the bluegrass band was Russia.
Take a bunch of kids whoโve never been out of East Tennessee. Then they tell you in college, youโre gonna go to Moscow to a music festival. We didnโt know what that meant. Oh, we gotta get a passport; how do we do that? We were really that simple. We went over as a group and didnโt speak anybodyโs language. We knew how to say goodbye, which is das vedanya, yes and no.
Once we got there, there was a group from Russia, from Italy, several different countries. We were staying in the same spot; we had translators. But once we started playing music, we realized, โWe can go over to this group, and follow along; learn from them and they can learn from us.โ
Next thing, weโre communicating. We grew up very differentlyโฆ We had much different beliefs, didnโt speak each otherโs language, but were playing the same notes on the instruments. Thatโs when we all bonded, and the trip became something different.
Thatโs the first time I realized how powerful music can be.
Kenny Chesney performs at the 4th Annual ACM Party for a Cause Festival in Las Vegas.
(Eric Jamison / Invision / AP)
Universality kept coming up when we were working on [โHeart Life Musicโ]: that universality in the islands, too. When you came to Nashville, what was universality part of it?
I was just chasing something. I knew I loved creating and songs. I had no idea Iโd get to a place in my life where Iโd know how universal it all was.
You go to the Virgin Islands and meet a lot of people who had different political beliefs, religious beliefs, who grew up very differently than I did in East Tennessee. They were great people; they loved love. They were full of positive energy, chasing the sun like I was, having different experiences and adventure.
I never knew my music would take me to those places, to see how universal it all can be. One of our primal needs as human beings is to feel that love and positive energy, to be loved. Thatโs why people continue to write songs about it.
What was the hardest thing about the book? And youโre not allowed to say โthe editing.โ
Look, the editing was the tough part, because thereโs a lot thatโs not in the book. I donโt know. Thatโs a good question. What was the toughest part for you?
Making sure you told the whole story. Some go way back.
They tell you in therapy: The more you tell the story, the more you remember it. I was afraid I was going to forget something. We kept talking, but then youโd remember this one thing, and it would take you down a completely different path.
A lot songs you wrote โ โI Go Back,โ โBeer in Mexico,โ even the island records โ people felt how much life was really in them.
All those songs were very autobiographical. Thatโs where the best songs come from.
Weโve all sat in rooms where weโve had a writing appointment; someoneโs gonna bring an idea. You write around that idea, make it sound really good with a track guy. Itโs great, but the best songs come from life โ and lived experiences.
One of the bookโs big pivots, after a triple platinum greatest hits but nobody knew you, was challenging yourself to make a record that was you. Then dropping โYoung.โ That song put really rock guitars โฆ
That song was really autobiographical, although I didnโt write it.
Itโs disingenuous for me to put out something I havenโt lived. Iโve done it a couple times with songs that were big records. โThere Goes My Lifeโ wasnโt me. I was the interpreter; but I knew people that had, so I was able to make it genuine, singing it for them.
My audience can smell something disingenuous pretty quick.
What was more fun writing: Grace Potter and โYou & Tequila,โ or Sammy Hagar and โBeer in Mexicoโ?
I canโt answer that question. Grace and I, weโre insane friends. The universe brought us together; I know that. Weโre supposed to know each other. The way our voices blend is unique, itโs almost like family. It is like family.
Add Sammy into that mix, all the fun Iโve had with Sammy onstage, offstage, in Cabo at his birthday parties? Me and my road manager David Farmer played his music in the garage when we were in high school, with pool sticks, playing Eddie Van Halen licks, Sammy Hagar licks; singing all this music that shook our soul.
The other side is Willie [Nelson], whom youโve recorded more duets with than anyone.
Iโve done four or five with Willie, including my Christmas record. When I met Willie Nelson, and Jimmy Buffett, the same thing, they exceeded what I made up in my head. To collaborate with them, especially Willie, because I produced a record on him with Buddy Cannonโฆ If youโd told me, one day Iโd be doing that? Thatโs an insane thing to believe.
But Willie and I really did connect. I just love him.
When โYoungโ came out, your life changed. Also, the sound of country radio changed, because the guitars came way forward. Is it because your heroes are diverse?
When your life starts to change, when you go into the studio that music is a direct reflection of the music you soaked up growing up.
Obviously, there was country, bluegrass, gospel. But there was also listening to the rock station; I heard Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty; I heard AC/DC, Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, all this music that moved me. I heard the Eagles.
I didnโt get the genius of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Marley until I got into college, started writing my own songs โ and went, โThis is amazing.โ That opened a whole other door to me.
Take all of that into the studio, a song like โYoungโ becomes a reflection of all the stuff you soaked up as a kid.
Then it all starts to happen. You play Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. You spent the whole night looking atโฆ
Where I used to sit. I grew up when there was no social media, no ESPN. You had three networks and PBS. We lived 30 minutes outside of Knoxville, but a guy named John Ward on WIVK called the games. The way he painted the picture for those of us who couldnโt get to the game, that was bigger than life.
The first time I walked in with my father to see Tennessee and Notre Dame play, it was bigger than life. We sat with his friend Jim Cogdill, whoโs still a family friend, in the same seats every time: Section Double K, Row 1.
Fast forward to 2003. That night in Knoxville, when I played my first stadium show ever, I spent the majority of the night, staring at section Double K, Row 1. I couldnโt believe I was in that stadium with my band and music with a lot of family in the audience.
What made you believe you could export that excitement? You did Pittsburgh, D.C. and Boston next.
It was a leap of faith. We felt a groundswell in New England, so we did it, D.C. and the Steelersโ stadium in Pittsburgh in 2005. Those went really well, so the next year, our whole tour was football stadiums. Last year, we did Sphere in Vegas.
When you build a road for over 30 years, the trick is to take this and have [people] experience it in completely different ways. Irving Azoff asked me if Iโd like to play Sphere. We were at Jimmy Buffettโs memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and Irving said, โI think you should be the first country act to play the Sphere.โ
I went, โI think youโre right. Thatโs something I think weโve been looking for, my audience has been looking for.โ
To be in that space, you see your audience experiencing these songs theyโve โlivedโ in a completely different state of consciousness. It takes their brain to an immersive space.
We go back to Sphere June 19 โ and weโre there until July 11.
What did you learn that got you so fired up, you wanted to go back?
Creating it. Finding different neural pathways for your creativity, but also taking your audience and creating different neural pathways for them to experience this music. Give the audience this amazing look, but the musicโs the thread of the whole thing.
Chesney performs for a sold out show at Sphere in Las Vegas
(Courtesy of Sphere)
At Sphere, everybody gets consumed by the music. The visuals make it hit harder.
The first show โ a lot of people are [looking up]. You canโt help but do it.
I went with Irving Azoff to see the Eagles. While we were in rehearsals, me and the band, a couple nights before our first show, went to see Dead & Co. It was good for us to be on that side, seeing how it all came together.
It literally changed how we thought about the process. I donโt think our show wouldโve been the same had we not seen how it all comes together.
How will it be different?
Weโre doing several songs we didnโt do last year, and some we did do are a completely different look. Without giving it all away, itโs different. The energyโs gonna be the same; itโs not a dark ride โฆ at all. Itโs an interesting ride, full of positive energy, full of love. Itโs colorful and full of light; I didnโt want my Sphere experience to take anybody down. Nobodyโs gonna come and get triggered โ if you know what I mean. Theyโre gonna, hopefully, walk out feeling euphoric.