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AUGUST 2012
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CHESNEY:
You really have no choice.
I won’t say their name on the record,
but there was a band last year that
le the stage because it was too hot.
I don’t get it. I imagine whether we’re
playing an arena, a stadium or what-
ever it is, there’s a section of the crowd
that’s only there because their friends
or their boyfriend or girlfriend or
somebody drug them there. They
don’t listen to the music, they’re not
invested in your career, they’re just
there to have a good time. By the end
of the show, in my mind, I want them
to be saying, “Wow, what just hap-
pened?” I take that as a challenge.
HEMISPHERES:
You tour with 130 people
and you run the show yourself. That’s a
big operation.
CHESNEY:
Yeah, I run a pre y big com-
pany. There are a lot of moving parts
to that and, trust me, I’ve got people
who manage those moving parts, but
ultimately it’s on my watch and I love
that. When I was a kid playing music
on a stool at East Tennessee State
University, I never dreamed I would
have this kind of an organization. I take
it seriously.
HEMISPHERES:
I’ll say. Didn’t you play a
whole show with a broken foot in 2008?
CHESNEY:
I was playing the University
of South Carolina’s football stadium.
That was the toughest night I’ve ever
had onstage. I came up on an elevator
and my foot got caught in there on
the first song. The people that came
had been there all day tailgating and
couldn’t wait for the songs they’d come
to hear. I sang a verse and the chorus
of the first song and I broke my foot.
I did most of the show on one leg. I
don’t ever drink onstage, but that night
I had a li le help.
HEMISPHERES:
You were on your high
school football team, so maybe that
helped you play through the pain.
THE
HEMI
Q&A:
KENNY CHESNEY
CHESNEY:
I was 5 foot 6 and 145 pounds,
so I had adversity every day I got on the
field. I had to work extra hard. I was a
really good athlete but I was vertically
challenged. I think that has carried over
into the way I approach my career, how
much work I put into it.
HEMISPHERES:
But it’s clear on the new
record that playing a good show or making
a good album doesn’t fix everything.
CHESNEY:
Our life out there on the
road is great, but I was talking to
someone who had heard the record
who said, “It sounds like you’re ready
to take a turn in your life, and not have
your whole life revolve around sound
check and catering at 5 p.m. every day.”
That life has consumed me since I was
19 years old. It’s been great, but I realize
that there is this other part that could
be a lot of fun too. I felt like a shark; I
was just moving all the time. There is
this thing inside of me that wants to
be a li le more se led.
HEMISPHERES:
Meaning?
CHESNEY:
I just decided that I wanted to
reconnect with people that I’ve become
disconnected with. I’m always gone and
I miss the people I should be closest
to. It’s a very spiritual experience to be
up there onstage and to sing in front
of 60,000 people at the Meadowlands.
But there needs to be something more
intimate than that.
I can tell you that the next 10 years
of my life isn’t going to be like the last
10 years. There were a lot of years there
when I would literally pack to come
home. I was constantly moving and I
really didn’t feel like there was a place
where I belonged. When you choose
a career like I’ve chosen and you have
this wandering spirit and soul, balance
is always hard to find, for anybody. But
I’m really trying to find that. I’m looking
forward to finding it.
DAVID CARR,
who covers culture and media
for the
New York Times,
is only occasionally
accused of macho cowboy posturing.
As a high school football player, “I was
5 foot 6 and 145 pounds, so I had adversity
every day I got on the field. I had to work
extra hard. I think that has carried over
into the way I approach my career.”