Nashville, TN (Kenny Chesney Fans Website) - Nashville, TN. - When
Kenny Chesney walked up onstage to accept the Male Video of the Year Award at the CMT: Country
Music Television Video
Music Awards, he was accepting for a clip that spoke to places deep inside the soft-spoken singer from Luttrell, Tennessee. Working with longtime collaborator Shaun Silva, the 'Who You'd Be Today' clip captured various scenes of people lost too soon and a performance that obviously came from a very personal place.
'I think everybody has lost somebody before they were meant to, and Shaun Silva and I did this video to help all of us remember those people,' said a clearly moved Chesney. 'I've got my own people that I did this song for.'
The song - which launched The Road & The Radio as the 25-million-seller's 4th consecutive No 1 all-genre Billboard Top 200 Albums debut - struck a resonant chord with fans, even as it got trapped behind Carrie Underwood's 6 week No 1 'Jesus Take The Wheel.' A pensive ballad, the tender pain of wondering what would have happened if... is captured in 3 vignettes within the clip, which obviously struck a chord with the fans.
'When you make a video, you want to make the song more,' says Chesney. 'It's too easy to steal people's own pictures, you know? So when we made this clip, we wanted to make it specific enough so people would know what we saw... but also leave them plenty of room to imagine the person they loved who died too young in there as well.
'It's a tricky thing: to make something concrete, yet leave it open. We spent a lot of time shooting, editing, doing effects on this clip... but given the response it was worth it, because, well, people responded. THAT was the whole point - like I said in my speech - to make sure the people who left us too young ARE always remembered.'
With 'Living In Fast Forward' a three week No 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart - and 'Summertime' sitting at No 22 with a bullet before add date, not to mention selling out Madison Square Garden in an hour, Boston's Gillette Stadium four months prior to his second appearance there in as many years, Detroit and Seattle's football stadiums almost clean and pretty much belly-to-belly business anywhere The Road & The Radio Tour 2006 is playing, it's a good time to be Kenny Chesney.
With Dierks Bentley and Sugarland out for the first leg, then Carrie Underwood spelling the platinum new country band, once again, Chesney's tour is defining what a fun country summer show is all about. 'A fan told me it wasn't summer until they had tickets to come see me and the guys,' says the reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year. 'I don't know if that's true, but it sure made me feel good! I mean, for us, it's these shows and our fans that bring the summer-time alive in a big way.'
