Nightlife / Music

Chesney never tires of touring his act

By Cathalena E. Burch, Arizona Daily Star | Friday, July 04, 2008 | () comments

Kenny Chesney returns to the i wireless Center in Moline on Thursday, June 19. (The Associated Press) Buy this Photo

Aside from reunited Brit-rockers The Police, no one drew a bigger audience than Kenny Chesney last year. Not even U2 or Madonna. Billboard reported that Chesney’s 2007 tour was the biggest for country music, selling more than 1.1 million tickets and grossing more than $71 million.

Is he shocked?

As a matter of fact, yes,

“(The other acts) play worldwide. I don’t. That’s all been done in the United States,” he said from his tour bus, parked outside Cleveland Browns Stadium for one of his 14 stadium shows this summer. “The fact that we’re up there in the same sentence (with U2 and Madonna) is mind-blowing.

“I remember being in a Laundromat in college, doing our laundry. And we were talking about wouldn’t it be great if we could get one song on the radio and all of us go out on a tour bus, just for one summer, and have a great time, just experience it,” he recalled and then laughed: “This is our 16th summer.”

Chesney, 40, has built his career one song, one show at a time since the early 1990s. Success came in fits and spurts until his fifth album, “Everywhere We Go,” which set his fast-track in motion.

It also launched him on a record-setting streak of 24 Top 10 Billboard country hits since 2000 — the longest Top 10 streak of any artist. His latest single, the ballad “Better as a Memory” off his eight-month-old CD, “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates,” broke into the country Top 10 last month.

“I’m really proud of my career, and we did it with a lot of hard work and having a lot of fun,” he said, chuckling when told he has become the example other artists follow.

His sacrifices have included less time with his family and personal relationships, including a short-lived marriage to actress Renée Zellweger that made tabloid headlines two years ago.

“I work all the time; I’m gone all the time. I know I’m sacrificing relationships and I’m sacrificing being really close to my family,” he said.

“But the good times definitely outweigh the tough times out here. I woke up this morning and I looked up and my bus is parked in front of the Cleveland Browns football stadium, for God’s sake.”

Chesney is on the road through September. After that, he’ll return to his boat somewhere in the Bahamas and watch the sun move across the sky to the soundtrack of Bob Marley. After a month or so, he probably will pull his guitar out of the closet.

“I’ll start messing around. The next thing you know, I’m a verse and a chorus into the next song. That’s how it usually works. By the end of November, we’re already preparing to go through the next summer,” he said.

Who: Kenny Chesney, with LeAnn Rimes and 50-Pound Rooster

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19

Where: i wireless Center, Moline

How much: $69.50

Information: (309) 764-2001 or iwirelesscenter.com on the Web

Also on the Web: KennyChesney.com

Opening act: The warmup band, Bellevue, Iowa, country band 50-Pound Rooster, was chosen from a field of eight area bands to open the concert.

Cathalena E. Burch can be contacted by e-mail at cburch@azstarnet.com. The Arizona Daily Star is a Lee Enterprises newspaper.