“We wouldn’t do this for just anyone,” says the man who runs his Sun City tour like a finely calibrated machine – and knows that ultimately, the only thing that matters is rocking those fans. “When you’re in the momentum of bringing the show together, you’re gathering that energy, you’re getting that focus… people see onstage and it’s a whole lot of fun, but don’t kid yourselves: we put a lot of thought and a lot of intensity to bringing something that’s as strong as what the fans give us.
Chesney's Second Greatest Hits CD Is a best seller
Pittsburgh:
Last year at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Stadium, there were so many boats docked on the river near the stadium, Kenny Chesney found himself commandeering a runner and getting out amongst the fans on the water – and with that sort of high spirits seeming to always be a by-product of Kenny Chesney in the Iron City, it seemed the perfect place to embed Entertainment Weekly to capture a day in the life of the biggest North American ticket-seller in any genre this century. Especially with his # 1 debuting Greatest Hits II, mirroring many of the songs in his set, available in stores and on-line.
“Entertainment Weekly is the kind of publication that wants to see how it comes together, what makes it work. They weren’t just coming at this as a ‘What time is meet & greet…’ sort of thing. And I think as much as I try to make it more for my fans, and also to give them a reason to forget about anything that might be bother them, they do want to know what it is we’re doing all day while they’re out in the parking lot. So, this was the perfect way to make that happen.”
Chesney opened his Corona Extra presents Sun City Carnival Tour to EW Senior Writer Whitney Pastorek, fresh from a piece about Pearl Jam and heading to the Bonnaroo Festival, and her photographer for complete access during their Heinz Stadium day. On the bus, in the off-guarded moments, gearing up, making the move and – obviously – taking the stage. Not only did Pastorek get to be part of Chesney’s entrance, but her photographer was able to shoot from the swing Chesney often enters on.
“This was a chance for me to give the fans a sense of how this happens,” Chesney explains. “To put it in a place and with a writer who gets the energy and the intensity of the biggest shows out there. If the people come and they throw it at us as hard as they do… If we’re going to show what it takes to be ready, to be enough to give them as good as we get, I wanted someone who would understand the difference… Not just think ‘oh, this is big, that’s a lot of trucks,’ but who would get how big the heart of every one of the people out here with me is, who would feel that intensity we try to bring to what we do – and also the fun. We play as hard as we work. We take the show and the music serious and not much else. – and it was obvious Whitney understood both sides of that.”
With his Sun City Carnival rolling into Chicago’s Soldier Field stadium on Saturday, a CMA Fan Festival appearance on Sunday and “Out Last Night” pushing towards #1, the man the LA Times’ called “the People’s Entertainer” is rocking hard. Friday, the fans, the frenzied and the just plain curious can pick up the new Entertainment Weekly and see just how the man who’s sold over a million tickets each of the past 7 years does it.
