TheState.com: Entertainment News

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.

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.