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Kenny Chesney has written a new book and shares some of his best stories with Sunday Morning's Lee Cowan. Why'd you decide to write a book now? What was it?
Well, I can um I think for me When you're up there on stage. and you feel that connection with an audience. It's really uh addictive. Yeah. Right?
So when you feel that, you keep plowing. Or I did anyway. I can't speak for everyone, but for me, I kept. wanting to connect more and more and more. And that didn't leave much time for reflection.
Hmm. Right?
I kept going and I kept seeing my audience grow. And honestly, I wasn't at a spot early on to do it like this.
Now was the time. We had the scope, but I didn't take the time until now to do it because I just was so, and I guess addicted is the right word. I was just so addicted to that. Feeling of connection when the audience spends maybe sometimes six months before they buy, from when they buy the ticket to when they come to the show. I mean, we go on sale in the fall for the next summer sometimes.
So there's this anticipation. That they have, and this anticipation that we have about that moment. People ask me all the time, what's your favorite moment of the night? And it's that first moment when those two forces meet like that. It is unbelievable.
So that feeling is. is so addictive. And I didn't allow myself the time to pause for just a moment. Hmm. even think about writing a book.
But now it felt like it was now it felt like it was the time because I have had so many people around me for so long out there on the road. We were a very special, unique road family. And it was a way to stop and pause. Oh, years. And we've lived a lot of life together.
We've had a lot of authentic life fun together. And I wanted to take a moment. Before we move into the next phase. Whatever that is. to pay tribute to them.
And the life we've lived out there on the road, it's been beautiful. Gorgeous.
Now that you've had time to reflect on it? Did you learn anything about writing the book?
Well, I could tell you, it was hard for me. Yeah. reflect on all of it, regurgitate it. Yeah. And when I got the book in my hand the other day and I started flipping through it, it was very emotional because there's pictures of my grandmother in there.
There's pictures of every stage of my journey up till now. And It it forced me, this book forced me. The pause. And it forced me to See how fortunate I've been, or I am. And I have so much gratitude for what's happened to me, it's unbelievable.
You know, I know that when Holly and I sat down and started to work on this book and I started telling stories, it was very therapeutic. It's like a therapy session. Yes, it was a lot like a therapy session. You know, if you have trauma, they make you tell the story and then you gotta tell it again. And then you gotta tell it again.
And every time you tell it, you remember something different. That was a lot like writing this book. Huh. That's interesting. You start off Where you did growing up in East Tennessee.
I didn't know the town was so small. It was like less than a thousand people. Yeah, we were. Still is a small town. And I love how I grew up.
I love that. We leaned on family, we leaned on church, we had School, sports, girls, that's all us guys have. You know, but there was, that's where this dream started too. I didn't know it at the time, but it's where the dream started. It sounds like uh your mom between her Love of music and her love of the ocean and the water was really probably your biggest influence, I guess.
Yeah, like my father gave me the love of sports. Yeah, and I'm very grateful for that. He gave, and I think I got a lot of... Um discipline from my father. Yeah.
The idea of that. Work ethic. Work ethic. Yeah. But I got work ethic from my mother also.
But my mom gave me, I mean, she comes to shows and she acts like she's never had a bad day in her life, which she has, but she chooses to have positive energy. And Give that to the world. And when I'm on stage, I'm going back and forth on stage, and I'm out there connecting with an audience. I mean that's something that my mother gave me. You talk about that um Thanksgiving concert.
I think it was in In Knoxville, where you saw Conley Twitty and Merle Haggard and George Jones, and that one really. really stuck with you as a kid. Yeah, there's a lot of music that stuck with me, but there's moments that I can talk about moments that really ignited a fire inside of me as a child and set me on a path that I didn't even know I was supposed to go down. But it was that night. It was kind of as a...
As um For a promoter, it's kind of a genius thing to have a show on Thanksgiving night. Yeah. Because everything, all the football, all the Eden's done, you know. We were in Knoxville Thanksgiving night and went to see George Jones, Conway Two, and Merle Haggard on the same show. And it was as if all three of those guys were singing directly to me.
It was as if nobody existed. And it was me, my Aunt Sharon, their Uncle Ken. And my great uncle, and it was us, but it was as if, I swear to God, that they were singing directly to me. And I saw that, and I went. This is what I want to do.
This is right here. When I saw them and I saw Alabama in a field, about 10 miles from where I grew up. They landed in the helicopter. They landed in a helicopter. And just to show you how connected we all are.
You know, the the the the The more life I live, the more I see that we are all connected in ways that we don't understand. In that helicopter, I was maybe nine years old. In that helicopter, you know, we're all waiting on Alabama to show up. And I could see Randy Owen waving from the window and see all the guys get out, and I saw a white-haired gentleman get out with them. And that was their manager, Dale Morris, who has been my manager.
sense. before I went on the road.
So what's the what's the odds of that? What is the odds of being a nine-year-old kid in a field 10 miles from your house, seeing our version of the biggest act in the world? And a guy gets off the helicopter with them, and then that person be such a huge part of your life. Yeah. It's.
There's a lot of those connections in this book. And it's now at this point in my life, I start to see how. How crazy all those connections are. You know, the universe is a crazy thing. Hmm.
You talk about the first uh bluegrass band that you had and you had a nickname. Yeah. Yes.
Now, when you're in a bluegrass band, it's pretty important that, especially when you're playing acoustic guitar, that you have. Really good timing.
Well, I was just learning. Right, I'm still learning, but um My friend Barry Bells, who was in the group, Gave me the nickname Timing because I had none. Just none at all. I'll never forget it.
So I think about that a lot when I'm up on stage playing. I said, I hope I'm in time right now. But I got a great drummer, Nick Buddha, so he keeps us all in time. But for me, let's be honest, nobody's coming to listen to me play guitar. I promise you that.
And your first gig was a Mexican restaurant, right? My first gig ever was in a Mexican restaurant. It's called Chuck East Trading Post. It was right on the river. I was so nervous and scared.
I had the audition. to play there. And the lady goes, how much material do you know? And I said, I don't know, twenty minutes maybe? And she goes, you're going to need fifty.
So I went home and I and I was I can still see it. I had a white truck and I had my guitar in the back and I pulled that guitar out of the out of the tail, you know, out of the back of the truck and I walked up those steps into Chucky's trading post and sat on a stool with a tip jar.
Well, first I had enchiladas, and then I, and then I, um, and I had a. I I had a can on on a on a stool that said tips please And that's how this whole thing started. It really is. And that night driving home, I didn't think I was going to be doing this. It didn't go very well.
Didn't I? When I was driving back to my apartment, it didn't go great. You know, because I didn't think so, but Here's the thing: they hired me to be background music for people eating and having conversations, and I hated it. I turned it up, I wanted them to listen to me so. I got fired from a few gigs because I I played too loud.
That's the truth. That was so symbolic of how we do it today, because you come to our show and it's allowed happening. We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview. after this break. Hiring isn't just about finding someone willing to take the job.
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Of people, much like Hemingway was, I guess, in a lot of ways. You write what you see and what you know. Yeah. Yeah, for me, I. Uh that was uh That's one of the gifts that I'm most thankful for, is to be able to communicate and to create.
Without that, I don't know what I would be doing. You know, I was sitting in a, at East Tennessee State University, I had a persuasion class.
Okay, and I had this girl, her name was Amy, and she sat right beside me. And I tried. I mean, it was six months to get her to go out with me. And I'm going, okay, how do I get this girl to go out with me? I had just started writing songs, and I had just.
you know, I just started playing in bars. I said, okay, I'm gonna write her a song. Really? Ever wrote. Right?
And it was trying to persuade. And ironically enough, it was in a communications class called Persuasion.
So I went home and wrote this song for her. And we had to put it at the time, you had to put it on a cassette. Yeah. So. The class that I had with her was only on Tuesday and Thursdays.
So I gave it to her on a Thursday, which meant I had to wait all weekend, even into Tuesday, to get some sort of a reaction. I came in and I was okay, this is. This is This is it. It's Tuesday. She was sitting on the other side as far back in the corner of the room as she could sit.
The reason I tell you that story is that was my first taste of rejection in the music business and as a songwriter. But it went from there. Yeah, I mean, like, you... You listen, you read, you observe people's lives, and you try to Communicate that. And your mom's salon, you said, was actually a source of salon.
Yes, my mother was a hairdresser. And this was when I was in college. This was after the song I wrote for the girl that didn't work out, right?
So I kept writing songs. And I knew even then that, look, I grew up around a bunch of women. And my cousin, my aunt Missy, my mom, and my cousin Kim, all of them worked in the same beauty shop.
So, if I wanted to see them on the weekends, I would go just hang out there. And if they were busy, I would sit and read Cosmopolitan Magazine. And then in the back of it, there was a section of the magazine where All these females all over the country would write in to the magazine, they would write letters in complaining about their life or about their relationships. or whatever. And I don't know that any songs came of it, but that's an example of.
How you take real life and try to make sense of it as a songwriter. Yeah, you just saw those stories. Yeah, about that.
So I would read all those stories and I would just keep middle notes, and I would go, when I would start creating, I would. Think about that stuff. You said it's a lot like fishing.
Sometimes you.
Songwriting is a lot like fishing. Yeah. You know, some days you get a great, you get a lot.
Some days you can sit there all day. and be frustrated. You know, it just doesn't happen all the time. Right. For me, anyway, as a songwriter, I really have to scratch and claw for everything that I get.
Some people are really. It just comes really easy for them. But for me, it's over the years, it's It's a lot like fishing for me. You know, when I wrote I Go Back and Beer in Mexico, that just was a gift. That was done really in a short period of time.
But then there's other songs that took forever. You know, but you it's it's it's a Creating is a grind, it really is, but it's a grind that I really, truly love, and I'm very thankful for. You um We were talking downstairs about uh Springsteen and you Had listened to his music, and there was also sort of an epiphany with him, too, in the sense that he writes about real things and real people wouldn't. I didn't know the genius of Bruce Springsteen until I got into college and started writing songs. It's not like today with all the streaming services, you can listen to anything you want whenever you want.
When I was growing up, you heard what was Given to you. And I didn't know the genius of Bruce until I started to write songs and was in college playing in bars. And I heard the Tunnel of Love album. And it had a song on it called One Step Up and Two Steps Back. And I went, wow, I mean, this is rock and roll, but it's also, at its core, a country song.
Yeah. And I really connected with it.
So much so that on that No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems album, I put a version. my version of Bruce's one step up on that record. And The girl I wrote this book with, Holly Gleason, I played it for her, and she goes, you have to send Bruce a letter.
So I sat down and wrote Bruce a letter. Thinking it would just go into oblivion. Yeah. Right?
And one day, I I got a letter back. telling me um how much he appreciated the care of a song and And Bruce was there for me a lot because when I was, when my life was changing, I wouldn't say it was a difficult change for me, but I was going, wow, this is, my life is really changing. I don't know how I'm... I don't know how to do this. And Bruce was, after that, after I got that letter, I reached back out to him.
And we. We would talk every now and then. He came to my show in Holmedale, New Jersey. Came on the bus. We chatted forever.
Hmm. And he was someone that I really looked up to, obviously. But He became a friend, you know, and someone that He was like a big brother, almost in a way, during that time. and I'll never forget it. Bruce told me that When it comes to writing songs, you can write half a song on a piece of paper and you can put it in a drawer.
And you can go back three years later and that song will still be there. But your life is more fluid than that. You know, and I've never forgotten that. Yeah. I can't think of another person that influenced me more in how we do things on stage.
I always looked up to the people that wrote their own songs and went out and gave it to the world with a lot of passion and energy. And when I saw Bruce, he didn't just give a little bit of himself, he gave. All of it. Yeah. All of it.
And that was the bar that was set for me and everyone, in my opinion. And so.
Somebody asked me One time in the interview a lot like this one, they said, we think it's really great that You get a you know Oh. We think it's really great that you give as much of yourself as you do. And I went, no, no, no, no, no. I give all of it because I learned. I had a teacher.
I had teachers. Yeah, and that's where that came from. Do you think you're all More like yourself on stage when you're in that moment than you do off stage? It is a really odd. thing And I've thought about this a lot.
I feel more comfortable in my skin up there in front of 60,000 people with my band and my crew. than I do in my everyday life. Why do you think that is? I don't know. I'm just happier there.
When I'm up there on stage and I've got my band around me, and we're in the middle of all this synergy and connection, it's. It's just nobody can mess with us. Yeah, you know what I mean? There's nobody, and it's beautiful. It's um But yeah, I've caught myself recently thinking that I'm Maybe a little happier up there in that moment because I just get to give so much love to the world.
Hmm. You won. Part of you giving everything up there, like we talked a little bit about this in Vegas, was just the The physicality that you go through for two hours, three hours, however long your contents end up being. And that's. That's become part of your life too: is working out, staying healthy, being in a good headspace, all that stuff.
Um video footage. Of me at my grandmother's house as a child, I mean, this tall, listening to music. And you can watch that piece of video. And then look at me on stage now at this point in my life. And it is the exact same movements.
Is that right? I hold my feet the same way, my legs the same way, my body language is exactly the same. It's crazy.
So I've always Moved with the moved when I heard music. And when you have the band that I have, I mean, it's. When we go up there, it is like it's on. And I can't help it.
So I know, okay, when I get off the road. At the end of August, September, whatever it is, I have a few months to play. Yeah. Eat what I want and whatever. But I know that What it takes of me to be this person up there, and I have to train for it.
People go, well, why don't you just take the time off and just go do it. Because it's that's not how it works for me.
Some people can't. I can't.
So I've set a bar for myself. You know, I don't know that is sustainable one day, but that's the way it is for me. Uh I um So yeah, when I start training to go be that other person, it's intense. But I know what it takes of me up there to give everyone, first of all, what they're used to, and what I want to give them. Um There is, it seems like Reading the book, there's kind of an element of I don't know, you talk a lot about dreaming.
and coincidence and you know, all these things kind of aligning. to have you know, produced what has come of your life. Is that Is there sort of a sense of Destiny, you think? Did you think that you were built for this? I think so.
I mean, there's a sense of that for sure. I mean, if you look at the pages of this book and You zoom in on all of it. And read all the chapters, but if you zoom in and look at it from a fisheye lens, the whole thing is a big dream. I really feel that. And I really feel like that I was supposed to meet, for whatever reason, I was supposed to meet my friends and heroes now in the music world.
All the people that we talked about. I was supposed to get advice from Bruce Springsteen. Why? I don't know. I was supposed to become friends with Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen and share the stage with them.
And Joe Walsh. I was going through one of the worst periods of my life, and Joe Walsh just appeared in my life. And he went out on the road with us. And he was on stage with us. And this is rock icon that we listen to in David Farmer's garage.
Yeah. And all of a sudden, I mean, you know how many times I listened to Rocky Mountain Way in my life? A lot. A lot. And all of a sudden, there was this person that created that next to me, and I was going through a terrible, terrible time of my life.
I believe that that people are pushed into our lives at certain times for different reasons and When I read this book, when we were done with it, and I read through it again, there's a lot of those moments in this book. Yeah, there is a lot of people. And I believe it's all in the universe and all written down. And I think that we're all connected in ways that we don't see coming. Especially at this point in my life, you know, but you see so many faces out there.
Yeah. And you see all these people on stage and backstage, and we all come from different places. We all have different political beliefs, different religious beliefs. We all, all of us, grew up very differently. But we have this one thing in common that binds us all.
We're all broken and we all love music. I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday morning on the free Odyssey app. or wherever you get your podcasts.
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