Kenny Chesney Biography

Summary

"Kenny Chesney" (born "Kenneth Arnold Chesney", March 26, 1968 in Knoxville, Tennessee ) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Having made his debut on an independent record label in 1993, Chesney has recorded thirteen albums, eleven of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. To date, he has also produced thirty Top Ten singles on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Songs charts, thirteen of which reached Number One. In addition, Chesney has received six ACM (including three consecutive Entertainer of the Year Awards), as well as three CMA awards. Chesney is also one of the most popular touring acts in country music, regularly selling out the venues at which he performs; his 2007 Flip-Flop Summer Tour was the highest-grossing country road trip of 2007. His most recent album, "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates", was released on September 11, 2007.

Early life

Kenny Chesney was born in Luttrell, Tennessee, his mother Karen was, and still is, a hair stylist in the Knoxville area. He was raised in Luttrell, Tennessee, and attended Gibbs High School in Corryton, Tennessee, where he was a receiver on the football team.

Chesney studied at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, joining the Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity and he was a member of the ETSU Bluegrass Program. Chesney played tunes at local places around Johnson City like Chucky's Trading Post (a small Mexican restaurant), Quarterbacks BBQ, and Rafters. He recorded his first album in 1989 at Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia. A thousand copies were made and Chesney sold them at his busking gigs, using the money from album sales to help buy a new guitar.

In 1990, Chesney graduated from East Tennessee State University with a degree in advertising. After graduation, he headed to Nashville, where he performed at several local clubs. After making the rounds of the music publishers in Nashville, Chesney signed to contract in 1992 with BMI and Opryland Music Group.

Career

Early years

Kenny's first album, "In My Wildest Dreams", was released on the independent Capricorn Records label in 1994. The album's lead-off singles, 'The Tin Man' and 'Whatever It Takes', both reached the lower regions of the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. The album sold approximately 10,000 copies before Capricorn Records closed its country music division that year. Shortly afterward, Chesney signed to BNA Records, which released his album "All I Need to Know" in 1995. The album produced three hit singles: 'Fall in Love' and the title track, both of which reached Top Ten, and 'Grandpa Told Me So', which peaked at #23. 'The Tin Man' was also included on this album, although it was not re-released as a single at the time.

1996 saw the release of "Me and You", Chesney's second major-label album. Although its lead-off single peaked just outside the Top 40 on the country charts, the album's title track (reprised from "All I Need to Know") and the single 'When I Close My Eyes' both peaked at #2 on the "Billboard" country charts, the latter also reaching Number One on the country charts of "Radio & Records". "Me And You" was also Chesney's first gold-certified album. A cover of singer-songwriter Mac McAnally's 1990 single 'Back Where I Come From' was also included on this album; although Chesney's version was never released as a single, it has become a staple of his concerts.

Late 1990s breakthrough

"I Will Stand", Chesney's third album for BNA, was released in 1997. 'She's Got It All', which served as the album's lead-off single, became Chesney's first "Billboard" Number One single, spending three weeks at the top of the country charts. The album's second single, 'A Chance', peaked just shy of Top Ten, while its follow-up, 'That's Why I'm Here', went to #2 on "Billboard" in 1998. ('That's Why I'm Here' reached Number One on "Radio & Records", giving Chesney his third Number One overall.) Also in 1998, Chesney recorded a limited-edition single titled 'Touchdown Tennessee'. The single was a tribute to John Ward, a former broadcaster for the University of Tennessee Volunteers' football team; St. Jude's Children's Hospital and to the John Ward Scholarship Fund received a portion of the single's sales.

1999's "Everywhere We Go", Chesney's fourth album for BNA, produced two consecutive Number One singles in 'How Forever Feels' and 'You Had Me From Hello' (the latter inspired by a line in the movie "Jerry Maguire"). The album also produced two more hits: 'She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy' and 'What I Need to Do', which peaked at #11 and #8 on the country charts, respectively. "Everywhere We Go" was also Chesney's first platinum-selling album.

2000s

By 2000, Chesney released his "Greatest Hits" compilation. It included four new tracks, as well as re-recordings of 'Fall in Love', 'The Tin Man' and 'Back Where I Come From'. The new version of 'The Tin Man' was one of the disc's three singles, with two of the new tracks -- 'I Lost It' and 'Don't Happen Twice' -- also serving as singles.

The album "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" was released in 2002. Its lead-off single, 'Young', peaked at #2, while the follow-up 'The Good Stuff' spent seven weeks at Number One, becoming "Billboard"s Number One country song of the year for 2002. A year later, Chesney recorded an album of Christmas music, titled "All I Want For Christmas Is a Real Good Tan"; the album's title track peaked at #30 on the country charts from holiday airplay.

2004 saw the release of Chesney's album "When the Sun Goes Down". Its lead-off single, 'There Goes My Life', spent seven weeks at the top of the "Billboard" country charts; the album's title track, a duet with Uncle Kracker, was also a Number One. At the Country Music Association awards that year, "When the Sun Goes Down" won an award for Album of the Year.

In January 2005, Chesney released the album "Be As You Are: Songs from an Old Blue Chair", supporting the album with his Somewhere in the Sun Tour and in November 2005. The album was a lower key affair sonically than most of Chesney's recent albums. Chesney released his second album of that year, "The Road and The Radio", which produced three Number One singles: 'Living in Fast Forward', 'Summertime', and 'Beer In Mexico', as well as Top Five hits in 'Who You'd Be Today' and 'You Save Me'.

In February 2006, Chesney was presented with a plaque commemorating his sales of 25 million albums. On May 23 of the same year, Chesney was honored at the Academy of Country Music Awards as Entertainer of the Year. In 2007 he was once again named Entertainer of the Year. On November 7, 2007 Cheseny was named Entertainer of the Year for the third consecutive year by the CMA.

Present-day

Chesney, along with Tim McGraw, contributed to a version of Tracy Lawrence's single 'Find Out Who Your Friends Are', which can be found on Lawrence's album "For the Love". The official single version, featuring only Lawrence's vocals, was released in August of 2006, but did not reach the Top 40 on the country charts until January of 2007, when "For the Love" was released. After the album's release, the version with McGraw and Chesney began receiving significant airplay, helping to boost the single to Number One on the country charts. The song became Lawrence's first Number One single in eleven years, as well as the second-slowest climbing Number One single in the history of the "Billboard" music charts.

On September 11, 2007, Kenny released the album "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates". The album's lead-off single, 'Never Wanted Nothing More', became Chesney's twelfth Number One on the "Billboard" country charts.

On the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart dated for the week ending September 15, 2007, Chesney's single 'Don't Blink' debuted at #16, setting a new record for the highest debut on that chart since the inception of SoundScan electronic tabulation in 1990. This record was broken one week later by Garth Brooks' song 'More Than a Memory', which debuted at Number One on the same chart.

Chesney also co-wrote Rascal Flatts' 2007 single, 'Take Me There', which served as the lead-off single to their album "Still Feels Good".

Chesney's most recent charity work includes working with the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Personal life

Chesney met Renée Zellweger in January 2005 and married her on May 9 of the same year, in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was the first marriage for both. Chesney stated,

On September 15, 2005, after only four months of marriage, Zellwegger filed for an annulment, citing fraud as the reason, as both Chesney and Zellweger believed that 'fraud' was the broadest of the available legal reasons for which annulments could be filed in California.

In an interview taped for the February 18, 2007, episode of "60 Minutes", Chesney told Anderson Cooper: