Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Back to the Tour Bus with Kenny Chesney

Transcript

Back to the Tour Bus with Kenny Chesney · Inside Country with Wayne D

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney is hanging out. Last time I saw you, Sphere. Vegas, baby.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: How did Vegas treat you? Incredible. Yeah.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, it really was one of the highlights of
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: my touring life. I mean, it was great.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: We had so much fun doing it. Just to see
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: the audience out there who have lived with this music
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: for a minute, you know, experience these songs in a
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: completely different way and in a completely different state of
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: consciousness was unbelievable.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you what's crazy, too, is.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: The sphere, if you don't know what the sphere is,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: look it up. And if you've been, you know. There
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: are times in life, and maybe you're this way too,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: where like you just pick up your phone, right? And
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: so I've been to a million concerts where I just
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: pick up my phone and I check Instagram for some reason,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: check my text for some reason. You go to a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: show at the sphere. It's like an ADD person's dream
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: because there's so much going on at the same time.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: It's true.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: If you weren't ADD before you went to the show,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: there you are when you leave.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: No question.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: What challenges does that give you, though? Because you're such
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a passionate performer. You leave it all out there. But now,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: with that big video screen, are you almost competing against
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: your own show for the entertainment value? Initially, we were.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Initially, we were. Because, look, you can't help it. I mean,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I did it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: I went to see Dead in Comedy before. We were
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: in rehearsals in Vegas while they were still doing their shows.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: So we went over there a couple of nights just
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: to hang and to see what they were doing and
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: to see it all come together. And wow, I mean,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: you can't help but just look at everything. So it
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: took me a minute to bring everybody back across the
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: fence to us. But after I learned how to do it,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: it was really great.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Well, last thing about the Vegas thing. situation are you
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a vegas guy like while you're there downtime are you.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I don't participate casino or anything like that no i
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: i play up look when i was a um when
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: i was just getting into this business i played a
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: lot of casinos and and i remember thinking if i
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: can ever get out of that world i'm never coming
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: back ever And so I don't participate. I actually stayed
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: in a place that didn't have casinos there.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: For that reason.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, good for you. So, yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Well, because I worked out a lot and I, you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the last two years that we were there, I mean,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: I was writing a book in my off time the
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: first year.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: So that that really helped with.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: My time not working out and waiting to go on
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: stage at 8.30.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I don't do casinos. I've never gambled. I
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: grew up too poor.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Well, so did I, but then I just go to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Vegas and give it back.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: We weren't poor, but we didn't have a lot of
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: extra money.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: So I've never done that thing.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: You are celebrating some new music, which is part of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: why we're talking today. I want to start with what
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: led to the new music. Because I've been lucky enough
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: through you and through your team and everything to sit
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and chat a few times over the past few years.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: You have your own label home now. You created your
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: own label home. I will tell you in interacting with
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you in Vegas at the Sphere, the excitement in interacting
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: with your team, it feels like this is like, it's
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: like your start. I don't want to say starting your
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: career all over again because there's like negative connotations to that,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: but it almost feels like you get to be a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: new artist again.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Well, it's definitely done in a different way. I got
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: to a point in my life and in my career
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: where if I was with a major label somewhere, I
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: would just be a part of a treadmill of the
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: way they were doing things. And that wasn't good for me.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: For any reason.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: And that wasn't good for me for a lot of reasons.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Now I have a great team around me that focuses
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: on one thing, and we are very hungry, and everybody's
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: really passionate about music And so if you saw everybody
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: kind of excited in Vegas, that's why. Because we felt
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: like that I've worked really hard for all these years
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: and that we deserve to do this. And I can't
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: tell you how freeing it is as an artist to
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: do basically anything you want. It's great.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: What does it mean to you to, obviously, part of
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you going down that road was you refueling your passion
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and what brought you to the dance to begin with.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: But when you see the people around you, the people
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that are now employed by you, right, when you see
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: how passionate they are about you refueling your passion, what
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: does that do for you?
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: But to know you've got a team out there that's
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: really excited to be in business with you. But it
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: all goes back to their love of music and their
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: love of doing this. I've got a great promotion staff.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: I've got a lot of great people around me doing this.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: But they've been doing this for a long time. And
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: honestly— Part of why we wanted to do this was.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: To have fun.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: And a lot of people, you can do this for
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a while and I don't know, you can work so
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: hard and you can do all the stuff. It just
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: takes the fun out of all of it. And so
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: that was the main reason we did it was to
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: have fun and to have focus and for everybody to
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: be on the same page and just really care about
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: what's happening and loving the music.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You did it. You got, your team did a great
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: job picking who you're working with. Cause there's some of my,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I've done this for a long time. Uh, and you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: picked some people that I'm like, I love that guy. Um,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: we're getting ready to celebrate this new album. Um, How
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: were you approaching the new music versus how you were
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: doing it before? Because obviously it was part of a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: label and it was part of somebody else's plans before.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Now you have your own.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: No matter what label it is and no matter what
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: record it is, every one is different. You can approach
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: it the same way, but no record is ever the same.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: The energy, the songs, the mixes, everything is just a
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: little bit different. I've been making Silver Sands Marina now
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: for about.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Three years because....
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: We were really busy doing other things. I was doing Sphere,
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: and the brain bandwidth it took to do two years
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: at Sphere and creating all the content was a lot,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: more so than just a regular tour. And then I
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: was writing a book, and then I was putting the
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: book out, and then another year at Sphere. So it
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: took a minute to get our record done, which was
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: great because it allowed me to find songs over a
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: period of time and not just in a certain 18
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: month window that a lot of artists are on, you know,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: you do put out a record, it's successful, hopefully. And
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: then you're on the treadmill. Everybody's wanting to know, okay,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: when's the next one coming? And we got about 12
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to 18 months for you to be brilliant again.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: So, um, I wasn't on that treadmill, which was great,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: which is another reason I wanted to start my own label. But, um,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Silver Sands Marina was made without any kind of a timeline,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: and that's what makes it really different.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Does it make it, and I don't want to cut
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: past projects down, but is this the one you're most
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: proud of because of, I mean, really, you got to
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: strip yourself down and rebuild yourself almost.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Well, no, I'm very proud of it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Look, I'm awfully proud of the big revival, and I'm
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: awfully proud of the road and radio, and I'm awfully
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: proud of the.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: No Shoes record. So I can't say yet.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: If it's, if, but I'm very proud of these songs
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: and I'm very proud of the way it sounds. And, um,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: you know, I think every record that you do, if
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: you do it authentically kind of, I know it's an
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: example of where you are in your life right now,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: you know? And so I, uh, I think this record
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: does that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: You are a phenomenal storyteller and vibe creator. Uh, and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I was vibe. Cause like, if you go, you don't
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: go to a Kenny concert, you experienced a Kenny concert, right? Um, what,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: so knowing that with this new batch of songs that,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: that fans are going to get to absorb, what are
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a couple of songs that you're like, Hey, I really
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: hope y'all dig this one.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously all of them, but let's be honest,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: not all of them is going to make the show.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: And I, and I'm, I don't do a lot of
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: album cuts in my show. I don't, I mean, I'm going, okay,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: we're doing all the hits and then we throw in
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: an album cut and that's when everybody starts looking at
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: their phone.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: So I try to keep them very engaged, but There's
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: a couple of songs on here we might do. Carry
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: On is going to be in the set, I know
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: for sure. But Goldfish might be in there every now
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: and then. Silver Sands Marina might be in there every
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: now and then. Because especially Silver Sands Marina, we live
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: in such a world of fake intimacy, right? And Silver
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Sands Marina is just about a moment of real human connection.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: And I love that about that song. I'm attracted to
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: those songs. I'm a sucker for those kind of songs.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: And it's a little nostalgic, but still, it was a
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: real story. And that's the reason that I wanted to
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: title the record Silver Sands Marina.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Last thing I'm going to ask, because we're short on time,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: one of the most important questions I can ask. How
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: are we feeling about the new football season? Because you're
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: obviously a big Pats guy. Yep.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Well, I feel great about it. Pats have a tough schedule.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: But I'm excited. I'm excited about football season in general.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: It's one of the things that I love the most.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Like me and my dad, we might not talk for
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: several months, but, you know, all of a sudden it's
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: football season. It gives us both a reason to pick
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: up the phone and go, well, what do you think?
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: You know, and it's a way of communicating. You know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: that's what I love about football.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Well, we're excited for the album. Obviously there's big tour
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: stuff I'd imagine in the works and everything. And we
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: can't wait to talk more about that, man. Thank you, man.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you having me.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you for cutting the time out. I want to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: talk to her, but first let me start with i
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: heart radio music festival which that's part of why tayton's
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: here he would have killed me if he left uh
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the i heart radio music festival has become this melting
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: pot of every music genre yeah it's something that you
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: have been invited to before you've played at before um
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: knowing that you continue to be so successful on such
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a high level and it's like it's time to come
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: on back to the i heart radio music festival um
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: what does that mean to you to be kind of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a part of a moment in time for music fans?
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: No, I was thrilled to be asked, you know, and, uh,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: get to play with all these different kinds of artists
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: who have the, have a different audience than me, you know,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: and they're, it's, it's like you said, a melting pot.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I'm, I'm excited to go. I mean, we've played it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I can't remember how many times we played it maybe
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: twice before.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And then now we'll be at the third time. So, um,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: but we're looking forward to it. Me and the band,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: we're going back to Vegas again.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: We might as well buy a house out there.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: We know where to go eat. You know what I mean?
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: But no, we're very thrilled and very honored that we
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: were asked.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: By the time people hear this interview, the tour dates
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: will have been shared. You're getting ready to hit the road,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: which is something we didn't get from you recently. I mean,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: maybe a couple of pop-up things here or there, but
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: your main focus was the Sphere in Vegas, which if
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you've ever been Has to be the main focus.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no question.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: What's the return of the road going to feel like
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: for you?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It's going to be great.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Going back out there and feeling the energy of going
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: into someone's town. You know, it's like I would say
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: 80% of the audience at Sphere traveled. Yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't like we were playing someone's town. You
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: know what I mean?
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: So now next summer we're going to go and play
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: in these cities where people have this sense of ownership,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: you know, and they're proud that you're there.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And I miss that.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: I miss the energy of all those people that truly
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: care about this music. And to go out there with
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: the people that we're going on the road with is
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: just going to be unbelievable. In 2013 was the first
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: year Eric Church went on the road with us. And
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: even then, in 2013, he didn't.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Have to do it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: And then he did sporadic shows with us in 15.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Now here we are all these years later. And he
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: decided to do it again. So Eric Church is going
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: to go out there with us in these stadium tours.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: And the only way I can wrap my brain around
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: it as to why is that he wants to. That's
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: the only reason that he would do it. Because I
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: know he does not have to do it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: But he is.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I hope that you are. So as a country fan,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I hope that you are able to stand back and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: absorb how wildly successful you are. Your fans are passionate
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: about you and your music. But you mean enough to
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the format. that somebody like Eric Church, who could be
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: running around doing his own thing, Old Dominion, Dan and Shay,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you've always had this way of having these more than
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: established acts want to be a part of what Kenny's doing. Like,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I hope you get to soak that in, because as
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a fan, I'm like, holy cow, that's awesome.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, but we also try to give the
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: people that come to these shows the best night of
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: their summer, honestly. And Eric knows that. And for him
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: to be a part of that and to want to,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I'm very, very grateful. I mean, I've told him, I've
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: called him like 100 times since he decided he wanted
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: to do it. I said, just so you know, I
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: know you don't have to do this, and I'm very
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: grateful that you're doing it. And then we have Rock
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: and Roll Hall of Famer Sheryl Crow going to come
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: out with us also. So that's going to be a
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: night of a lot of great hits, a lot of
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: great music. And my friend, who I have an East
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Tennessee connection with, Graylin James, is going to go out
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: there with us too.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: So we have a really good.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Really good package rolling down the highway next summer.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, you don't go on tour, you go
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: on festival.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Kenny does a show, it's a damn festival in your city.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: It's going to be fun.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: We're truly excited to get back out there and to
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: be in that moment, you know, and to feel that
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: synergy of our stadium shows. Because by the time we
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: get there, it will have been three years, believe it
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: or not.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Listen, Kenny's back on the road. Country music is back
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: where it's supposed to be.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you, man.