TheState.com: Entertainment

Chesney injury won’t get in way of shows

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:36 EDT

Kenny Chesney needed two shots of morphine for pain after leaving the stage Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium, but the injury he sustained won’t force him to cancel any shows.

A statement from Chesney’s publicist Monday said the toes on Chesney’s right foot bore the brunt of his injury, “and he is basically a hematoma (a bad bruise) from the ankle down.”

Still, Chesney’s orthopedist in Nashville, Tenn., gave him a green light to perform Thursday in Texas.

“Dr. Elrod got that the last thing I want to do is cancel shows, but also that I don’t want any kind of lasting damage ... ,” Chesney said in the statement.

Chesney added that despite the injury, he didn’t want to disappoint the fans Saturday at Williams-Brice, “who’d been out in the parking lots since the day before. ... (I)f they were having that kind of a party, I was gonna be there.”

Chesney plays through the pain

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:00 EDT

As the band played “Live Those Songs,” Kenny Chesney squatted on a rising platform.

Lisa Lockaby, who was sitting in a field seat near the stage, knew Chesney’s plan to open Saturday’s show at Williams-Brice Stadium had imploded.

“He likes to make grand entrances, and he was sitting there humped over,” Lockaby said. “You could tell from the facial expressions.”

And Chesney wasn’t singing.

Chesney had planned to emerge from underneath the stage and have a lift put him several feet above the crowd. Instead his boot got caught between the platform and stage, crushing his right foot.

Chesney injured, but OK to play

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:57 EDT

It was supposed to be a spectacular entrance — Kenny Chesney rising from underneath the stage at Williams-Brice Stadium.

But as he crouched on the rising platform, the lift jolted and Chesney’s right ankle, which was secured in a harness for safety, was pulled awkwardly.

The band kept playing the opening song, “Live Those Songs Again,” as Chesney winced in pain. He signaled the crew to lower him to stage level.

By the final chorus, Chesney was back on beat and smiling. But he clearly was in pain, and the cocksure strut he’s known and loved for had a hitch the rest of the evening.

Saturday night’s kickoff to the stadium portion of Chesney’s “Poets & Pirates Tour 2008” got off to an unfortunate start, but Chesney proved why he is one of the few performers who can do stadium shows: He kept singing.

It's all about the party

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:40 EDT

After preening for the camera in front of a small crowd, Katie Cook, the host of Country Music Television’s “CMT Insider,” said what a lot of people were thinking.

“I’d like to hang out here all day with you guys,” she told the folks in front of Stefan and Kerry Rathmann’s party bus.

If there was a place to be Saturday before Kenny Chesney’s Poets & Pirates Tour 2008 concert at Williams-Brice Stadium, that was undoubtedly it.

With its “Kennybus” North Carolina license plate, the Rathmanns’ ride stood out in the sea of tents, pirate flags and tiki bars.

The Rathmanns, who live on Lake Norman near Charlotte, sipped Coronas and danced to Chesney tunes with their friends in the sand they brought with them. What put their tailgate over the top, though, was its tented bathroom.

FAN VIDEO: Chesney injured in show

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:57 EDT

Kenny Chesney injured his right foot during Saturday night's concert at Williams-Brice Stadium.

During his grand entrance shortly after 9 p.m., Chesney's foot was caught between the rising platform and the stage. Chesney continued to perform, but the injury limited his mobility throughout the two-hour set and it was evident he was in pain.

Though video cameras were not officially allowed into the stadium, concert-goers managed to capture the moment and posted their videos on YouTube.

Click below to watch one of the videos.

Video: Chesney injured

Chesney grabs the limelight, surprises crowd

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:40 EDT

Sure, Woodwork Roadshow was the winner of Friday’s “The Next Big Star” contest, the four-band competition for the right to open Kenny Chesney’s big show.

But the band ended up being upstaged by the star himself.

Shrieks sprang from mouths and cell phones and cameras were pulled from pockets as Chesney — who kicks off his “Poets & Pirates Tour 2008” today at Williams-Brice-Stadium — made a surprise appearance at the event at the State Fairgrounds.

Jon Michaels, one of the contestants, had to know the noise wasn’t for him. But Michaels was gracious, ceding the stage to Chesney, who looked casual in cutoff khaki shorts, a USC baseball cap and New Balance sneakers.

“Thank y’all for coming out,” said Chesney, who was sipping from a blue plastic cup.

Chesney calls Columbia his 'heartland'

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:40 EDT

Charlotte Hiott, a 40-something mom from Walterboro, will see a lot of music Saturday.

In the morning, she’ll watch her 15-year-old daughter, Randi, perform at the Colleton County Rice Festival with the Colleton County High School marching band.

Then Hiott and her boyfriend, Mickey Zahler, will “Fast Forward” to Columbia for Kenny Chesney’s concert.

“My boyfriend and I both love Kenny Chesney, and I thought this is something we’d like to do together,” said Hiott, who will make it a mini-vacation by spending the night in town.

It’s the love from fans like Hiott that makes playing Columbia special for Chesney.

Chasin’ Chesney - Friday: More from our interview with Kenny

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:07 EDT

Here are some things Kenny Chesney talked about that didn’t make it into my interview today.

On playing stadiums:

I don't think anyone thinks, “Yeah, football stadiums.” The first one came out of a reporter pretty early in my career, going “What else is there for you to accomplish?” Being flip, I went, “Well, I'd like to the play the University of Tennessee’s football stadium in Knoxville.” (He did so in 2003.)

I was being funny, but it got me thinking. And the more I thought, the more I dreamed, and then we started working towards it. And it's funny, it's a different kind of show at first, but then once you get used to how big it is, it gets really intimate. You have all this extra room to move.

Now, it's like 60,000 people feel like a normal-sized venue.

Chesney at Williams-Brice: How it happened

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:48 EDT

Kenny Chesney’s upcoming concert at Williams-Brice Stadium wasn’t supposed to happen until next year.

But Tom Paquette, the Colonial Center’s general manager, needed a bigger place for Chesney’s show in Columbia this year.

“We’ve done Kenny Chesney at the arena five straight years, and the last three years he sold out in 30 minutes,” Paquette said. “He’s got something special in Columbia.

“We just thought that because Kenny was so hot, why not go (with a stadium show) a year early?”

Paquette went to Detroit last summer to see Chesney’s show at Ford Field and make his pitch to Louis Messina, president of The Messina Group and vice president of AEG Live, Chesney’s tour promoters.