Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ BNA Entertainment) - Even when
Kenny Chesney tries to cut back, he somehow maintains his ability to throw the year's biggest party. The chilled-out, high-energy performer may have done the fewest number of shows since becoming a headliner in 2002, but he managed to play to in excess of 1,000,000 fans for the 7th consecutive year.
'It's always been the fans who make this happen,' Chesney says. 'They come out. They're as much a part of this as we are � and it's why when we're wrapping up one year, we've already got the plans up for the next year. When you've got fans who're as loud as ours, who have as much fun, who grill out and turn the parking lots into a party I'd want to go to, well, you know when you come back, you wanna give 'em even more. So that becomes the challenge we start thinking about long before whatever tour we're on is even close to wrapping up.'
With shows ranging from 14 stadiums - in such non-traditional country markets as San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston, which sold out for the 4th year in row in less than an hour - to a handful of college and Key West bars, including the legendary Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street, Chesney played to 1,187,622 fans on his Corona Extra sponsored Poets & Pirates Tour. With surprise guests spanning from Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller to duet partner Uncle Kracker, it was a summer marked by high-end special effects including a computer animated pirate ship and talking skull intro, a computer generated 'Wild Ride' pinball machine and the traditional local landmarks and touchstone video during 'Back Where I Come From' and the hits that the fans have come to love.
'You know there are certain things you have to do � and then there are the surprises you need to think up,' Chesney says of what drives his headline-garnering live show. 'I try to think about what I would've liked to see, what things would make me kinda go, 'Yeah!' 'cause I'm still a fan above all. If I can give that to the people who come to see us every year, then I think I've done a pretty good job. But coming up with new things, creative ways of doing our shows, it's harder than you'd imagine.'
Having surpassed the million ticket mark each of the past seven summers, Chesney has become something of a tradition for concert goers ranging from teens to Baby Boomers - and even in this year's sagging economy, the Poets & Pirates Tour distinguished itself with the numbers of fans played to more than the size of its gross.
'I've never been about getting the largest amount of money out of my fans,' Chesney explains. 'I have to pay for the amount of production, the trucks and staff to make it work, but I want to know that the people who want to come see us, to party with us can � and if that means I make a bit less money, that's fine. To me, it's about being fair to the people who love this music, who want to be here. Could we charge more? Probably. But it's not about that, at least for me. No, I want to have a good time with everybody who wants to come and sing along. Thankfully at a time when the touring business is slumping a little, we've been fortunate to be the choice people have made.'
Fans can also look forward to new Chesney music with the October 14 release of Lucky Old Sun, featuring his current smash, 'Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven.'
