Kenny Chesney chalks up a huge year

It's safe to say that no artist in music has had a better year than Kenny Chesney .

In 2002, the 34-year-old Chesney became the only country artist in at least three years to graduate from headlining 5,000-seat halls to full-sized arenas. After nearly a decade in the business, the Luttrell-born singer has finally caught the notice of the mainstream and cemented his position as a country star. In the 2002 Country Music Association Awards to be given this week, Chesney is nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year and, the highest award, Entertainer of the Year. Yet after the last 11 months, the awards almost seem like an afterthought.

"Somebody asked me the other day, 'Will you be disappointed if you don't win anything at that CMAs?' " says Chesney from his Nashville home. "But if I win a CMA Award, it won't be the best night of my life this year. That was in Raleigh (N.C.) and Charlotte (N.C.) when we outsold Aerosmith or when we sold out Rupp Arena (in Lexington, Ky.). Those were the nights that really stick out.

"We're playing the same venues as Jimmy Buffett and Aerosmith and AC/DC and (George) Strait, these guys that we've all looked up to. To go out there and do it and to have one of the Top 10 grossing tours of all formats - we weren't expecting that."

A graduate of Gibbs High School and East Tennessee State University, Chesney first ventured to Nashville in 1990 and pursued a songwriting contract. Three years later, he signed with the ill-fated Capricorn Records and recorded his debut album, "In My Wildest Dreams" (now a highly prized out-of-print collectible).

It was another four years before Chesney, then signed to BNA Records, would completely take charge of his career. He hired trusted lifelong friends David Farmer and Tim Holt as his tour manager and merchandise manager, respectively. And he worked tirelessly at getting his music played on radio. Chesney earned his first No. 1 hit, "She's Got It All," in 1997.

Over the next few years, Chesney built a fan base by alternating catchy up-tempo radio fare ("She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," "How Forever Feels") with hard country ballads ("That's Why I'm Here," "I Lost It").

However, with the album "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems," released early this year, Chesney upped the ante considerably.

"I think this is the deepest record I've had," he says. "I feel like there's a big part of me in every one of these songs. Before " I just recorded some songs that I felt like was gonna get me on the radio. This time I did that, but I also tried to put a lot of my heart and soul in these songs."

Although a "Greatest Hits" album was released in 2000, "No Shoes" is Chesney's first album of new material in more than three years. While he didn't write the songs on the album, he says he - probably unconsciously - sought out songs that were more mature.

"I think everybody is a sucker for the truth," says Chesney. "I've lived a lot in 32 years. A lot can happen to a guy during that time period. There is a lot of looking back on this record. The new single now is called 'A Lot of Things Different.' Even being at the age I am now, I look back and say I would've done a lot of things different."

Critics, for one of the first times, generally gave the disc high marks, as well. However, even some of the positive reviews slammed Chesney for recording the Bruce Springsteen song "One Step Up."

"Then I got a personal letter from Bruce saying how much he loved it, and then they found that out. Now all of the sudden all those guys love the Springsteen song!" Chesney laughs.

Praise was near universal, though, for the song "The Good Stuff," which spent seven weeks at No. 1 - longer than any country single this year - and has become Chesney's most successful single to date. The song depicted a widower recounting exactly what is important in life.

"It was a guy at the record label named Rusty," says Chesney. "His wife died of cancer, and the songwriters (Craig Wiseman and Jim Collins) wrote this song inspired by Rusty's story. But it's not just a song about someone struggling with cancer it's about the struggles that a couple go through during their first year of marriage, and it's just a song about real life. Rusty shaved his head when his wife lost her hair to make her feel better about it " I want to love somebody that much. I think that's what life is about, and I think everybody, deep down, that's what they want."

Chesney, though, hasn't gotten to that point himself. He is often referred to as country music's most eligible bachelor.

"I'm just about as single as single can get," says Chesney with a chuckle. "When I get married I want to be able to give (a wife) a whole lot of time and let the relationship be first. But right now, I'm just being honest with myself and being honest with whoever that person may or may not be, they wouldn't be right now."

Instead, Chesney is looking back over a year when he took a chance and won. Although he thought the time was right to headline arenas, he says he was a little scared by the prospect.

"There's always that 'What if nobody comes? What if we fall flat on our face?' " says Chesney.

From the first, though, crowds were good. They began at the 8,000 range and grew as the year progressed.

"You could just see the crowds going from 8,000 to 10,000 and then into 15,000," says Chesney. "One of the last arena shows that we did was Rupp Arena, and we had the second-largest crowd there after Garth (Brooks)."

Outdoor venues followed. Shows in Birmingham, Ala., Raleigh, Charlotte and Pittsburgh all sold out to crowds in the 20,000 range.

"They weren't just there - they were partying in the parking lot," says Chesney. "It was like they were going to a NASCAR race " the energy at those shows was almost like a Tennessee-Florida football game. I stood up and looked, and there were just people as far as I could see, and I said, 'This is what they feel like. This is what our heroes feel like.' "

It was a far cry from 1997, when Chesney sat on his tour bus late at night on the way to perform at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth. At that time he mused about getting out of "the pit" - a place filled with marginally successful country music hopefuls. He was determined to do it, but there was no way of telling how he might change if he succeeded.

"There are a lot of demands on me (now)," says Chesney. "A lot of people are looking at me these days. A lot more people are aware of the kind of songs I cut, how I conduct myself " every single thing. And that's a little different to take. But as far as me personally, I don't think I've changed that much. I still have the same friends around me that I've had for a long, long time. The only thing that's changed on me is I'm a little more impatient with things, because I work very hard and I expect everyone around me to, too. I know more about what I want and how to get there and how we're doing this.

"But as far as me, personally, have I changed much? Nah, I don't think so."

© 2002, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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