Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Kenny Chesney Has Challenges, Shares Tough Moments on Tour

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Kenny Chesney Has Challenges, Shares Tough Moments on Tour · Inside Country with Wayne D

• 0:00
  All right, it's Wayne d And I gotta tell you, I don't know
• 0:01
  how we nailed this guy down, because NonStop, Kenny, where even are
• 0:05
  you right now? I'm in Tennessee right now. It's been a very busy
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  couple of months. Uh, getting the sun goes down, tour going,
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  and it's we're just having a blast out there. Man. But I've got
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  a few I've got a few days off before we head back out. Uh.
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  The latest album is fantastic. Fans are enjoying it. But like at
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  this point, you're out, the album is out, you're out performing these
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  newer songs. Are you getting the it to start to start writing, writing
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  and recording? Are you already in that already? I think I think that
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  when you're a creative person like me, you're always in it. Yeah,
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  you know, it's that never goes away. I mean, it's just it's
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  just I'm not so much now, I mean, since we just put the
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  record out, but and and it's hard for me to create on the road.
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  So but but I'm always creating, you know, sometimes it's more intense
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  than others, but we're always kind of creating. Are you a guy that
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  tours tours with any sort of like bus that has a little recording studio or
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  anything in it. No, I I let all the If I bring any
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  of the riders out, you know, they all they have that all that
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  stuff on their computer. I I really don't. Some of my friends have
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  studios in their house, and I don't have a studio in my house or
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  my bus, or on my on my boat. Nothing. So when I
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  go to when I go to the studio, it's pretty intentional, you know.
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  And I like getting away from it too. Yeah, you need to
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  unplug it at some point. Uh. We talked to you right before this
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  album came out. We talked to you right before you were you were hitting
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  the road again. Obviously you have some cities you're looking forward to seeing.
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  Have any city surprised you with the energy that they're showing up with so far
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  on this tour? Oh, I mean all of them are really great,
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  you know. But we played I mean this past Saturday, we we did
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  the Pittsburgh Steelers Football Stadium and that was our twelfth time playing it, and
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  it was as loud as anything that we have ever heard. It was.
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  It was a amazing couple of hours up there. And uh, it's just
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  you know, it's just everybody on the show is just doing a great job,
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  from Zach Brown to Mega Maroney and Uncle Crocker. I mean, that's
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  a lot of music to hear before even we come on, you know.
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  So it's as a fan, it's just a it's a great night of music.
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  Well, knowing how your shows are like mini festivals, uh on tour,
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  how how involved are you with with other people's sets? Are you kind
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  of just give them the time frame and then they roll with it, because
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  obviously you don't want fans to be like, you know, tired as hell
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  by the time you hit this. Yeah. No, no, I don't
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  get involved in anybody set. I mean that they have they have their time
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  frame, you know that that they gotta that they that you know, their
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  their show length. But I don't get involved in anybody sets at all,
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  you know. I'm just we're still trying to figure ours out, you know,
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  but we have I don't really I don't really tell anybody what I think
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  is best, you know, I'll leave it up to them to do that.
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  Uh. Last time we caught up with you, you also talked about
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  how you're not Over the years, you've learned that you're not afraid to call
• 3:00
  audibles on stage with with where you're going. What's the biggest audible you've had
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  to call so far on this tour if you have one? Oh wow.
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  Well, the other night in Pittsburgh, like I said, was a great
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  night, and we hadn't done Pirate Flag all year, and I thought,
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  well, we're in a pirate town, so it might as well as do
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  Pirate Flag. And you could just see the band kind of look around because
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  it's been a few years since we've played it and we haven't rehearsed it.
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  It was just an audible on the fly, and we did that. We
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  did a couple other things the other night that I mean, we're finally into
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  a place now where we've got, you know, the hour and forty five
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  minutes down to where we want it, and now we're going to start adding
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  stuff, you know, and we've got about twenty songs that we can add
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  or not play or you know, or add in. And so that's that's
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  kind of where we are now. Man, I can't wait. This year
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  will be the first year I've seen a full Kenny Chesney show because I've only
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  seen you at festivals. So I'm dying to dive into the experience when it
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  comes to off the road, because you're pretty good at making sure that you're
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  hitting these these cities. You're you're you're doing the shows, but you also
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  have uh ample time in between the dates, right for the most part.
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  Yeah, but I've got I've got my life now where it's literally you know,
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  like we play uh some there's a few weeks this week. There's a
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  few weeks this year where we play a Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Uh,
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  you know now we play now we're doing a Thursday Saturday and so uh
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  we'll do it like a Thursday night Amphitheater and then uh, the Friday night
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  we're in a stadium market offf we do soundcheck and then Saturday we do the
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  stadium show. And that's that's our whole year. We'll be we'll be doing
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  that all the way to the end of August when we do you know,
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  our our weekend in Foxborough, Massachusetts. What does that do for Obviously,
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  when you start a career in any format of music, you can't you can't
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  work that way, right, So you've worked situ waited this fun You'll never
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  You'll never make it. That's the case. But but but you, but
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  you have made it. What does that do for you? Number one?
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  Confidence in your career and success and and enjoying the success in your career.
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  What does that do for that? And what does it do for your mental
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  health to not have to be like, you know, Wednesday, Thursday,
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  Friday, Saturday, home, Sunday back when's it? What does it do
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  for that? It's a good routine to be in. Like, like you
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  said, it hasn't always been this way. I mean, there were several
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  years of my life where I would pack to come home, you know,
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  I was gone all the time. And but yeah, I mean in the
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  last several years, I feel very fortunate to have gotten my life into a
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  place where we we pick and choose what part of the AAR WePlay and usually
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  it's a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night off place Saturday, and so it's
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  it's it's really great. I mean, it's it's great for the band,
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  it's great for uh, your brain, it's it's it's to know that you're
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  just not out there grinding constantly. But look, when you're a new act,
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  you're grinding. It's part of the job. You know. I grinded
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  for a long time take me through the album, because now since we caught
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  Up, the album is out, fans have wrapped their arms around it.
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  What are some surprises on either songs that fans are loving more than you thought
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  they would, or maybe feedback you're getting on certain songs that maybe didn't expect.
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  No, yeah, we're getting a lot of great feedback on just to
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  say we did. We're getting a lot of great feedback because it's great,
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  you know, like you said, to get your record out there and let
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  it seep into into the everybody's life, you know. And so I think
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  Born is a song that keeps coming up, Guilty Pleasure is a song that
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  keeps coming up, and of course the single take Her Home is is doing
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  really well. And so those songs that seem to be the ones that are
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  getting the most attention, you know, number one songs are are are such
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  a big deal to at least record labels and I'm sure management teams and all
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  that we talked before. That's not that's not going to gauge success on the
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  song necessarily for you. But take Her Home being the first offering off this
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  album, it would be nice to have that crown on top of it,
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  right, yeah, always, Yeah, it really would be. It's a
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  great way to start the start the cycle of this record. But I mean,
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  what really makes what really makes you proud is when you know, now
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  we're out there on the road and you know, take Her Home has been
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  out there for a little while, and you can see the audience start to
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  react to it and start to sing it back to you. And that's that
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  means it's truly connecting. And that's what that's what that's what making music is
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  all about, you know, And and so that's that's that's the best thing
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  you could possibly ask for as an entertainer is to see the look on their
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  faces when you're up there singing a song that they can relate to, that
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  you find some commonality with. And that's that's the that's the best thing you
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  can That's the best you could ask for. What song is raising his hand
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  the highest to be the next offering the country radio for you if you could
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  pick now? Ah, I can't answer that. I don't know. I
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  don't know yet. Listen there will be an official social post and an email
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  from the record label. I will wait. Yeah, yeah, last thing
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  I want to ask you, man, uh, you are a guy who
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  works his tail off and puts out phenomenal music, and the way you have
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  built your your and I don't even like calling it a fan club because you
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  treat these people more like family than th nation. But uh, but but
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  a guy who has has has done such a great job at celebrating his fans
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  the way you do. What is the the best part about being Kenny Chesney
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  when you look in the mirror, something that you're most proud of or something
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  you're most excited about. And what's the toughest part that maybe somebody would have
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  no idea. Oh, well, I don't know. I mean, like,
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  the toughest part is being you know, is being gone a lot,
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  you know, and the toughest part is having to get reacquainted with your family
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  and that's the that's not normal. So that I would say that that's always
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  been the toughest part for me because when we when we go, we go,
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  and and we're gone a lot. So it's it's that's that's always been
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  the toughest part for me. Uh, the part that I'm what was it?
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  What was the first part the part that the best part of being you
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  or maybe you know you look in the mirror The best part of being me
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  is is that as that is, no two days are ever the same.
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  Ever. I mean, I We're always going somewhere. We're always got a
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  different thing to do. And when you're creative, that's that's always something different.
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  And when you put a record out and you go on the road and
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  play music, you're always going somewhere. So I mean, look, I've
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  got there's parts of my life that are mundane, just like everyone else's.
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  But the part of my life that I love is that there's always somewhere else
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  to go, you know, And I love that or something to look forward
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  to. God, you just said, you just said something. It sparked
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  what felt like a song title, always going was always going somewhere. Yeah.
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  Yeah, I'm just saying it feels good. Uh, Kenny, I
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  know you're a busy guy. Man, I'm gonna let you run. I
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  apologize for the issues earlier and uh problem. Thanks thanks for making it work
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  man, You're always world class. I love catching over with you, O
• 10:16
  pal, Thanks for everything. Take care, Kenny Sea Bud Feeler