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.
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Now, it's like 60,000 people feel like a normal-sized venue.
On what makes a good song:
Anything that's real. When you hear it, you know it's true. It tells you something about life, whether it's kicking back with your friends like “When The Sun Goes Down,” or remembering someone you fell in love with for a week like “Anything But Mine,” or the idea that something that feels like it’s the end of your dream is really the biggest gift you'll ever get, like “There Goes My Life.”
On people forgetting he was a songwriter first:
Some people do, yeah. But when you come to Nashville, it’s not just “Step up to the window and be a star”. For some people, maybe. But most of us have day jobs, go to writers’ nights, make friends, have some laughs, and if you're lucky - and I was - get to learn from the masters.
My “break” was getting a publishing deal at Acuff-Rose, who published Hank Williams. I got to go in there every day and write songs, learn the craft, and I could go to lunch with some of the best writers, just listen to them talk about songs, artists, women, sports.
SOUNDCHECK: We hear Chesney is doing his soundcheck today at 4 p.m. We’ll be out there to see if we can hear anything, too.
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