Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ BNA Entertainment) - When you can go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction dinner with Van Halen's
Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, hang out listening to songs with Willie Nelson, and hang out after the Super Bowl with MVP Peyton Manning, it makes it a little hard for your friends to throw you a birthday bash that keeps up.
Kenny Chesney understands, so he's decided to celebrate his birthday doing what he loves best: jamming with his band in a local bar with no fan fare.
Loading in early for a 6 p.m. downbeat, Chesney and band knocked rehearsals for the upcoming Flip Flop Summer Tour, presented by Cruzan Rum, off early, so they could blow the roof off Music Row's demi-legendary Tin Roof. Like all Keg In The Closet shows, this was no set list, no production, no stress - just a lot of covers, a few acoustic songs from Be As You Are: Songs from an Old Blue Chair and plenty of fun.
'I get to lead a pretty great life,' Chesney explains of the last minute notion. 'It's not like I need to have a birthday to have an excuse to have a good day! But, you know, any time I can kick up a little dust with my guys, just get out there and play a little sloppy and way too loud, well, that's about the best kind of fun… and the idea that it could be happy hour for the folks on Music Row who choose to come… it gives me a chance to celebrate with a lot of people who're important to me who I never get to see 'cause we're usually on the road on my birthday.'
Chesney, the current and back-to-back Academy of Country Music and two-time and reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, will get back to the road April 12th in Omaha , Nebraska . Having sold 1.3 million tickets last year, the guy sitting at No 1 on Billboard's Country Singles Chart with 'Beer In Mexico' played to more people in North America than the Dave Matthews Band or the Rolling Stones… and with six NFL stadiums on this year's schedule - Boston ad Philadelphia both selling out in 15 minutes - it appears that 2007 will maintain the pace.
'Me and the guys live to play,' Chesney says. 'We always feel more alive onstage, no matter the circumstance… but the idea of stripping it all back and just playing here in my hometown, letting it all hang out and seeing who shows up, well, that's my kind of birthday: laid-back, chilled-out and ready for whatever happens.'
Having taken Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Montgomery Gentry, Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson, Uncle Kracker and Carrie Underwood out as his special guests, not to mention this year's tour-mates Sugarland and Pat Green, it could be an all-star who's who at the Tin Roof - and only those lucky enough to get in to see the double ACM nominee will know just who shows. Certainly, it's gonna be a wild ride and good time for a man who could do whatever he wanted on his birthday.
