Contribute to 7 Multi-Platinum Albums + 16 Multi-Platinum Singles
51 Songs Across Career Achieve Heavy Metal Status, All BUT His Debut Album, Too
Kenny
Chesney Celebrates 105 Million Units Certified from the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) | Photo Credit: Jill Trunnell
Las
Vegas, Nev. – When you’re busy moving forward, it’s easy to forget keeping
score. Kenny Chesney, the Country Music Hall of Fame electee who just
wrapped a full-immersion residency at Vegas’ Sphere, built a career on the
quality of the songs and how they resonate with No Shoes Nation as he
continually sought to find songs that were better than what he’d already done.
As Billboard’s No. 1 Country Artist of the 21st Century and the
artist with the most No.1 Country Airplay singles, Chesney’s songs and albums
have been the soundtrack for coming of age across the nation. In the
pre-streaming era, when a Platinum-certification meant a million copies sold
and people making the decision to put their down their money, he had several
multi-Platinum projects – and he could feel the passion when fans sang “Get
Along,” “American Kids” or “Young” at shows for the last many summers.
Nothing, though, could have prepared the songwriter/superstar from East
Tennessee for the award from the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) marking over 105 million units certified in the U.S. alone. He said,
“These kinds of numbers almost don’t exist. Who counts that high? But seeing
all the discs and the size of the plaque, it hits you how big this really is.
“What I know is what I hear when the band and I are on stage. You can tell when
you hear people cheering and singing these songs with every bit of joy they’ve
got, this isn’t just a song they like, these songs are something that hits them
in the heart. To me, even more than Platinum or Gold, it’s the sound of those
voices that tells me how much this music means.”
With
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems; When The Sun Goes Downand
Greatest Hitsall certified 5x Platinum, The Road
and The Radioachieving 4x Platinum status and Just Who I
Am: Poets & Pirates, Hemingway’s Whiskeyand Everywhere
We Goall 2x Platinum, there are also nine additional Platinum
and six Gold albums in Chesney’s catalogue.
With today’s update, “American Kids” and “You and Tequila” featuring Grace
Potter earn 5x and 4x Platinum status respectively. Five songs – “Summertime,”
“When The Sun Goes Down” featuring Uncle Kracker, “Come Over,” “Don’t Blink,”
“Get Along” – receive 3x Platinum certification, joining previous 3x Platinum
“Somewhere With You.” “I Go Back,” “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,” “All The
Pretty Girls,” “The Good Stuff” and “The Boys of Fall” join previous 2x
Platinums “There Goes My Life,” “Setting The World on Fire” featuring P!nk and
“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” not to mention five new Platinum certifications
and three new Gold certifications contributing to his overall total of 51
RIAA-certified singles.
L
to R: Jackie Jones, RIAA SVP, Artist & Industry Relations, Kenny Chesney
and Michele Ballantyne, RIAA COO/President | Photo Credit: Jill Trunnell
“I know what music meant to me, the way a song can change your moment, give you
clarity or just make you feel seen,” says the man who’s in the midst of final
edits on Heart
Life Music, the story of his journey as a creative
soul seeking kindred spirits. “Because some of these songs are fun, that
doesn’t mean it can’t matter or doesn’t say something people connect with. And
with ballads, I’ve tried to make them speak to a moment that’s so real you can
see it.
“Buddy (Cannon) and I have really tried to push what we were doing in terms of
the songs and how we recorded them; I wanted to say the stuff people never said
for kids like me – and find the sweet spot where melody and lyric reflect each
other in a way that made each song even more than any one moment. I wanted
songs that I hoped would always be true.”
Tapping moments and emotions at their most potent, Chesney fashioned a series
of albums that went through the phases of life without ever relinquishing those
moments of being young many people carry throughout their lives. Those songs
fuel legendary two-hour performances that deliver an antidote to the animosity
of the world, create a nation without polarization and space to come together
for the love of what being alive can mean. More than 105 million in
certifications can’t be wrong.
CMA Announces Tony Brown, June Carter Cash
And Kenny Chesney As The Country Music Hall Of Fame Class Of 2025
Nashville, TN - Mar 25, 2025
THE COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES
TONY BROWN, JUNE CARTER CASH AND KENNY CHESNEY AS THE
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025
The Country Music
Association reveals the 2025 inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame – Tony
Brown (Non-Performer), June Carter Cash (Veterans Era Artist) and Kenny Chesney
(Modern Era Artist). Photo Credit: CMA
The Country Music
Association gathered at the prestigious Rotunda at the Country Music Hall
of Fame® and Museum, today, to reveal the 2025 inductees into the Country Music
Hall of Fame – Tony Brown, June Carter Cash and Kenny Chesney.
Brown will be inducted in the Non-Performer
category, which is awarded every third year in rotation with the Songwriter and
Recording and/or Touring Musician categories. Cash will be inducted into the
Veterans Era Artist category and Chesney will be inducted in the Modern Era
Artist category.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince
Gill hosted the press conference to announce the news, which was also
streamed live on CMA’s YouTube channel.
“This year’s inductees embody the relentless
drive and dedication that defines Country Music,” says Sarah Trahern,
CMA Chief Executive Officer. “Kenny, June and Tony have each left a
lasting imprint on the genre, shaping its history with their contributions.
From a young age, each of them was immersed in music, and their lifelong
commitment has led to this very moment. Their achievements speak to the passion
and dedication that have defined their extraordinary careers, and the impact of
their work will continue to inspire future generations. There’s something
incredibly special about being able to surprise each inductee or their family
with this recognition – it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of my job,
knowing how deeply their careers have touched the lives of so many, including
myself. It is with great pride that we honor these three remarkable individuals
and celebrate the lasting legacy they have created within our format.”
“All three of the new inductees have left
indelible impacts on the genre and firmly established themselves as
unforgettable contributors to Country Music,” says Kyle Young,
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Chief Executive Officer. “North Carolina
native Tony Brown is a trailblazing record producer and executive who has
helped shape the sound of modern Country since the 1980s, supervising many
best-selling records while also ushering in outsider talents to the genre.
Virginia-born June Carter Cash was a vibrant torchbearer of her family’s
enduring Country Music legacy who forged her own distinctive path during her
more than 60-year career as a beloved singer, comedienne and songwriter. And
Kenny Chesney, from Tennessee, has maintained one of the biggest hitmaking
careers in Country Music since 2000, with more than 50 Top 10 hits, 16 Platinum
albums, and is a regular top touring act who continues to delight audiences.
Fittingly, they will now forever be enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame
with their illustrious peers who shaped our art form.”
“When you’re producing No.1 records, you feel
like you know what you’re doing,” says Brown. “But being inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame — especially for someone as idealistic as me —makes
it feel like you’ve truly made an impact. And that has always been my goal.”
“June Carter Cash represents the whole cloth
of Country Music, it’s breadth and heritage,” says the Cash family. “And June’s
place in Country Music is undeniable. From the 1940s, across the decades and
into the current century, her voice has been heard across the country and
throughout much of the world, both with Mother Maybelle Carter, sisters Helen
and Anita, and on her own, as well as with her duet partners, including her
beloved Johnny Cash, with whom she told stories and inspired musicians both past,
present, and future. She was a loving wife and mother, an actress, singer,
songwriter, comedienne and a truly gifted performer whose persona was never
exactly what was expected but was always and totally June. She profoundly
respected, and was respected for, her craft, and that endures to this day. We,
the Carter and Cash families, are most grateful and proud that the County Music
Association has given June this well-deserved honor for her undeniable
contribution to the fabric of Country Music and American culture.”
“You don’t dare dream of being in the Country
Music Hall of Fame, alongside legends including George Jones, Willie Nelson,
Alabama, even Dean Dillon,” says Chesney. “I’ve been lucky enough to get to
call them my friends, and that was plenty. But hearing the news I’d been voted
into the Hall, I can honestly say beyond my wildest dreams, it’s an honor that
defies words. I am humbled, grateful, honored…as much for all the songwriters,
musicians, artists and people who’ve helped me build my career; they have truly
inspired me every single day.”
Non-Performer Category – Tony Brown
“I never wanted to be famous,” Tony Brown
wrote in his 2018 book “Elvis, Strait, to Jesus: An Iconic Producer’s Journey
with Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country, and Gospel Music,” “I just wanted to be
noticed.”
Within the Country Music industry, he became
both — a musician, producer and record label executive that the Los
Angeles Times Magazine once anointed “The Kingmaker of Country Music.”
He has produced more than 100 chart-topping Country hits and has worked with
dozens of artists. His parallel paths prompted Rodney Crowell to say, “It would
take five of everybody else in the music business to equal one of Tony Brown.”
Born December 11, 1946, in Greensboro, NC,
Brown grew up in a strict, religious household, the youngest of four children
born to a man who left his job at a dairy to become a Baptist evangelist after
receiving a lung cancer diagnosis. As a member of The Brown Family Singers, he
sang harmony with his two brothers and a sister, later switching to piano. At
13, he caught the bug for performing from the audience response to his playing
at the annual Southern Gospel Music Festival in Benson, NC.
Eventually, he joined the Oak Ridge Boys’
backing band, The Mighty Oaks Band. That same year, the Gospel Music
Association named him the Best Gospel Instrumentalist. Brown soon found himself
in Elvis Presley’s orbit as a member of Voice, described as Presley’s “on call”
house band, available for the late nights when the King wanted to sing gospel
songs. From there, he went to the Sweet Inspirations and then to Presley’s TCB
Band, succeeding Glen D. Hardin. Brown played piano for Presley’s final concert
in Indianapolis on June 26, 1977.
In the months after Presley’s death, Brown
joined Emmylou Harris’ renowned Hot Band, replacing Hardin once again. During
the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared on her albums Blue Kentucky Girl, Light
of the Stable, Evangeline and White Shoes.
Around the same time, he joined Free Flight
Records, a Nashville-based pop label under the RCA Records umbrella, as a staff
producer, moving to RCA’s Nashville division when Free Flight folded after less
than a year. RCA was the top label in town, a status Brown helped solidify when
he signed Alabama.
Brown also joined former Hot Band alum Rodney
Crowell’s backing band The Cherry Bombs, which featured other Hot Band members
as well as Vince Gill, whom Brown had convinced to move to Nashville. When
Brown returned to RCA, he signed Gill to the label.
Brown began producing more, as well, having
his first hit with Steve Wariner’s 1983 Top 5 single, “Midnight Fire,” which he
produced with Norro Wilson.
In March 1984, he jumped from RCA to MCA
Nashville, helping make it Nashville’s No. 1 label during Country’s boom years
of the 1990s and eventually rising to President of the division. Brown
developed a reputation for signing and producing not only commercially
successful acts but also adventurous, influential ones.
“He gravitated to artist types that were most
often unique and cutting edge, but at the same time he was very much a purist
and a traditionalist,” said Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn, for whom Brown
produced the 2006 CMA Single of the Year, “Believe.” “He didn’t try to dictate
to the people that he worked with how to do what they did; he challenged them
to be all that they could be.”
In 1986, he produced Steve Earle’s
seminal Guitar Town, which Brown has said defined his start as a
promising producer. He fulfilled that promise when he co-produced Rodney
Crowell’s 1988 release Diamonds & Dirt, the first Country album
to yield five No. 1 singles.
Brown brought Gill to MCA, where he had his
biggest hits. He also signed other future Country Music Hall of Fame members
Patty Loveless and Marty Stuart. He produced even more, working with Wynonna
Judd on her first three solo albums and developing long-lasting production
relationships with Reba McEntire and George Strait. He was a pioneering force
in what would become known as Americana, either signing or producing the likes
of Joe Ely, Shooter Jennings, Lyle Lovett, The Mavericks, and Allison Moorer. After
leaving MCA, he founded Universal South with former Arista Records Nashville
chief Tim DuBois in 2002.
Brown is a six-time GRAMMY winner, a Gospel
Music Hall of Fame member and a North Carolina Music Hall of Fame member. In
2004, he received Leadership Music’s inaugural Dale Franklin Leadership Award,
which honors exemplary leadership in the music community, and the Academy of
Country Music’s Icon Award in 2024. The Americana Music Association gave him
its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Over the course of his career, he has
amassed more than 100 No. 1 singles and seen record sales exceed 100 million
units.
Strait, who has recorded 20 albums with Brown
as his producer, has said, “Tony Brown is going to leave a big footprint in the
music world when he decides to step away.” That day has yet to come, but
there’s no doubt people will notice the impact he has made as he steps into the
Country Music Hall of Fame.
Veterans Era Artist Category – June Carter
Cash
If Country Music really is a family, June
Carter Cash was its matriarch for decades. She earned her standing in the
Country community not only because of her talent but also because of the way
she brought together musicians from across generations, encouraging them and
bringing out the best in people as if they were her own family.
She was more than that, of course. There was
always more to June Carter. The middle daughter of Ezra and Maybelle
Carter,Valerie June was born in Maces Springs, VA, on June 23,
1929. Her mother was five months pregnant with June when she recorded “I’m
Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes” with A.P. and Sara Carter. Collectively, her
mother, aunt and uncle were known as the Carter Family, a trio whose music laid
much of the foundation for commercial Country Music.
She entered the family business as a child.
By age 10, she had learned to play autoharp and had begun appearing on the
Carters’ radio broadcasts, first on stations at the Texas-Mexico border, then
at WBT-AM in Charlotte, NC, and on to WRNL-AM and WRVA-AM in Richmond, VA. She
performed with her mother and sisters Helen and Anita, developing her comedic
chops with characters like Aunt Polly Carter and learning to do anything for a
laugh. “I think I tried to be funny when I couldn’t think of anything else to do,”
she said.
The family act appeared as regulars on
several radio shows — Richmond’s “Old Dominion Barn Dance,” Knoxville’s
“Tennessee Barn Dance,” and the “Ozark Mountain Jubilee” in Springfield, MO,
before settling at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry in 1950.
In 1952, June married Opry star Carl Smith.
Their four-year marriage produced a daughter, Carlene, who eventually had a
successful music career of her own.
After her split from Smith, June and Carlene
moved to New York in 1956. She fell into the creative Greenwich Village scene,
befriending director Elia Kazan, whom she had met at the Opry, and studying
with Sandy Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. She began
to land acting roles, including episodes of “Gunsmoke” and “The Adventures of
Jim Bowie,” while also flying home on weekends to appear on the Opry.
She returned to Nashville when she married
Edwin “Rip” Nix, a local businessman and sportsman, in 1957. Their daughter,
Rosie, was born the following year. June and Nix divorced in 1966.
During the early 1960s, Mother Maybelle and
the Carter Sisters began touring in support of Johnny Cash, whom June had met
backstage at the Ryman Auditorium a few years before. The attraction between
the two entertainers was undeniable. June wrote a song about her feelings for
Johnny. When Johnny heard “Ring of Fire,” he added mariachi horns and
transformed it into a signature hit that topped the Country charts for seven
weeks in 1963. They soon began recording duets together, releasing Carryin’
On With Johnny Cash and June Carter in 1967. A song from that album,
“Jackson,” won them a GRAMMY.
June married Johnny on March 1, 1968, in
Franklin, KY.
Most of the spotlight during the couple’s
35-year marriage fell on Johnny, though they won a second GRAMMY together for
their 1970 single “If I Were a Carpenter.” Son John Carter Cash was born on
March 3, 1970, while that record was climbing the charts. June also placed a
single called “A Good Man” inside the Billboard Country Top 30
in 1971.
Behind the scenes, June played an invaluable
role in the Country Music community as she turned the Cash home in
Hendersonville, TN, into a creative hub and welcomed established and aspiring
musicians and songwriters. She nurtured her “babies,” who included Kris
Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Larry Gatlin. She inspired
and assisted countless others.
While June may have chosen a supporting role
as her primary one during those years — she often referred to herself as Aaron
to Johnny’s Moses — she also found ways to satisfy her creative spirit. She
appeared in the 1997 film “The Apostle” opposite Robert Duvall, who, like June,
had studied with Sandy Meisner in New York. In 1999 at age 70, she
released Press On, her first album in 25 years. It won the Best
Traditional Folk Album GRAMMY in 2000. June won two more GRAMMYs for her
follow-up album, Wildwood Flower, in 2004, though those awards came
posthumously.
June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at age
73.
Two years later, Reese Witherspoon portrayed
June in the film “Walk the Line” and won a Best Actress Oscar for the role.
In 2024, “JUNE,” the critically acclaimed
documentary telling the story of her life, was released on Paramount+ and was
nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the Best Music Film category.
In 1997’s “Cash: The Autobiography,” Johnny
Cash said that June Carter was the greatest woman he ever knew. Only his
mother, he said, came close. He also called her “one of the most neglected
artists in Country Music. Sadly, I think her contributions to Country Music
will go underrecognized simply because she’s my wife; it certainly has been up
to now.” That was, he wrote, his only regret about marrying her.
Now, those contributions have finally been
properly recognized as she joins so many members of her family and her friends
in the unbroken circle of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Modern Era Artist Category – Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney put his car on I-40 heading west on the day the Gulf War started.
The young man from East Tennessee was chasing a dream he couldn’t truly know
the magnitude of – only that he wanted to write songs and touch people the way
George Jones, Conway Twitty and Alabama, as well as Van Halen, Bruce
Springsteen and Jackson Browne, had touched him.
The recent East Tennessee State graduate,
who’d gone to Russia with the school’s Bluegrass Band alongside future members
of Alison Krauss’ Union Station, had already made a few trips to Music City,
meeting with publishers, producers and even a couple record company people.
He’d play the Turf on a decidedly different Lower Broadway, get a publishing
deal at iconic Acuff Rose a year later and be signed to a record deal with
legendary Southern rock label Capricorn by no less than founder Phil
Walden. In My Wildest Dreams was released in 1994, with
“Whatever It Takes” not making much of a dent, but Chesney’s self-penned “The
Tin Man” showed a strong creative voice.
It wasn’t until manager Dale Morris took
Chesney to RCA’s Joe Galante, himself now a Country Music Hall of Fame member,
that things began to fall into place. Heart-forward, decidedly Country, “Fall
in Love,” his first BNA single, cracked the Top 10, while 1997’s “She’s Got It
All” became his first No. 1.
By 2000, Chesney had a triple Platinum Greatest
Hits that included “How Forever Feels,” “I Lost It,”
“That’s Why I’m Here,” “Don’t Happen Twice” and “She
Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.” Headlining small arenas, he experienced
explosive growth on George Strait’s Country Music Festival stadium tours in
1999 and 2000, which fired his desire to create a sound all his own.
With 2002’s “Young,” the guitar-forward
coming of age joyride, Chesney came into his own. Pulling the rock influences
he loved through the bluegrass and Country he was born to; a sound that
reflected his generation was born. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems debuted
at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top 200 Albums chart and
forged a new Country aesthetic – as America asked, “Who the hell is Kenny
Chesney?”
Hit singles, awards and blown-out switchboards and ticket sites followed in
rapid order. By the time 2004’s WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN also
debuted at No. 1 on the Top 200 Albums chart, Chesney had sold-out the
University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, the first artist to play there since
the Jacksons. Between the thoughtful balladry of “There Goes My Life,” the
driving “I Go Back,” the tropical title track duet with Uncle Kracker and the
punched up “Keg In The Closet,” the album suggested a thrilling kind of Country
for young people with a thirst for life.
Beyond winning four Country Music
Association and four Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year
awards, the soft-spoken songwriter and rising superstar began taking Country to
places one wouldn’t expect. Selling out NFL stadiums in Boston, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, Oakland, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and more, his duets brought
Dave Matthews, the Wailers, Grace Potter, Willie Nelson and Mac McAnally to the
top of Country radio charts – on his way to being the only Country artist
on Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Acts of the Last 25 Years for
the last 16 years.
His love of the ocean, always an undertow in
his commercial records, inspired a series of singer-songwriter projects that
also debuted at No. 1 on the Top 200 Albums chart . Be As You Are
(Songs from an Old Blue Chair) spoke to the musical force’s soul,
while Lucky Old Sun, Life on a Rock and Songs for the
Saints celebrated different aspects of the people and places Chesney
inhabited beyond the spotlight. They also yielded “Get Along,” “Pirate Flag,”
“Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and “Spread The Love.”
Restless and creatively driven, 20 years
after his debut, Chesney delivered “American Kids” from his “The Big Revival” –
and once again, changed the game. Rhythmically forward, it pressed the energy
even higher for the man the Wall Street Journal crowned “The
King of the Road” and Variety deemed “Country Music’s only
true long-term stadium act.”
That energy permeates Cosmic
Hallelujah, Here And Now and BORN, his latest. He has
continued pushing the envelope, collaborating across genres with Ziggy Marley,
Mindy Smith, P!nk, David Lee Murphy, Kelsea Ballerini and good friend Jimmy
Buffett, whom he helped induct into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
And his fans, named No Shoes Nation, are
equally voracious. Variety called them, “a concert-going
community rivaled perhaps only by Parrotheads and Deadheads.” Chesney sees them
as friends, people who share his work hard, love hard, live in the moment and
absorb all the positive energy possible ethos.
Whether creating No Shoes Radio to keep the
music flowing, “Boys of Fall,” the definitive high school football song that
inspired an ESPN documentary, an unprecedented three nights at Gillette Stadium
in August of 2024, or taking No Shoes Nation to a whole new dimension as the
first Country artist at Sphere in Las Vegas, the high-impact performer is
always looking for ways to enrich the people whose own lives are reflected in
his albums.
Like “HEART*LIFE*MUSIC,” his first book due
this fall, Chesney created a world based on his heart, pulled through his life
and infused his music with all the things he valued. Giving everything he had,
he delivered the kind of truth that became the sound of coming of age across
the nation in the 21st century.
And if there’s anybody in Country Music who
puts all of his heart and his life into his music, it’s Kenny Chesney. That’s
the mindset that got him to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
MAC McANALLY DELIVERS A HEARTFELT TRIBUTE TO THE
LEGENDARY JIMMY BUFFETT AT THE 57TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS, SHARING THE STAGE WITH
AN ICONIC GROUP OF BUFFETT’S FRIENDS KENNY CHESNEY, ALAN JACKSON AND ZAC BROWN
BAND
Photo Credit: Hunter Berry/CMA
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (November 9, 2023)– Wednesday night (Nov 8), at the 57th
Annual CMA Awards, the illustrious singer/songwriter, musician and producer
Mac McAnally graced the awards stage alongside celebrated artists Kenny
Chesney, Alan Jackson and Zac Brown Band to pay homage to the
beloved late Jimmy Buffett.
Together, Chesney and McAnally delivered a
heartfelt rendition of Buffett's classic hit, "A Pirate Looks at
Forty." This iconic song, both written and performed by Buffett,
made its debut on his 1974 album, A-1-A.
Watch the performance here:
Following
the duo’s acoustic performance, Zac Brown Band and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan
Jackson debuted a fitting tribute song “Pirates and Parrots”
following with the legendary “Margaritaville” which turned into a
sing-along for the entire arena and, surely, viewers at home.
As highlighted
to Billboard on the red carpet, Mac McAnally shared a unique bond
with Jimmy Buffett during his nearly three-decade journey as an integral member
of The Coral Reefer Band - touring around the world with the “Margaritaville”
icon.
He even co-produced the most recent album from
Buffett, titled Equal Strain On All Parts which came out last Friday. Listen to
the album here: sunrecords.lnk.to/ESOAP
Mac McAnally US Tour Dates:
Nov. 11 - Pensacola, Fla. - Veterans Memorial Park
Fundraiser - SOLD OUT Nov. 12 - Pascagoula, Miss. - Grand Magnolia
Ballroom - SOLD OUT Nov. 18 - Manchester, N.H. - The Dana Center -
SOLD OUT Nov. 19 - Boston, Mass. - City Winery Boston -
SOLD OUT Nov. 21 - New York City, N.Y. - City Winery NYC -
SOLD OUT Nov. 22 - Philadelphia, Pa. - City Winery
Philadelphia - SOLD OUT Nov. 30 - Florence, Ala. - Down The Road for the
Holidays Fundraiser - SOLD OUT Dec. 1 - Franklin, Tenn. - Franklin Theatre - SOLD
OUT Dec. 3 - Atlanta, Ga. - City Winery Atlanta - SOLD
OUT Dec. 6 - Greensboro, N.C. - Margaritas and
Memories at Piedmont Hall Dec. 13 - Annapolis, Md. - Ram's Head On Stage -
SOLD OUT Dec. 14 - Annapolis, Md. - Ram's Head On Stage -
SOLD OUT Dec. 15 - Hopewell, Va. - The Beacon Theatre -
SOLD OUT Jan. 25 - Key West, Fla. - Key West Theater - SOLD
OUT Jan. 26 - Key West, Fla. - Key West Theater - SOLD
OUT Jan. 27 - Key West, Fla. - Key West Theater - SOLD
OUT Jan. 28 - Key West, Fla. - Key West Theater - SOLD
OUT Feb. 23 - Shipshewana, Ind. - Blue Gate Theater March 21 - Birmingham Ala. - Hoover Library
Theater - SOLD OUT March 22 - Birmingham Ala. - Hoover Library
Theater - SOLD OUT March 23 - Columbus, Miss. - The Lyceum at Lee
About Mac McAnally
Record
setting 10x CMA Musician of the Year, Mac McAnally is a Nashville Songwriters
Hall of Fame, Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame
inductee. The renowned singer, songwriter and instrumentalist has written
dozens of hit records for other artists, several of which peaked at No. 1. His
own recording career began with the debut hit single “It’s A Crazy World” and
has grown to 14 album releases. He has written hits for Alabama ("Old
Flame"), Jimmy Buffett ("It's My Job"), Kenny Chesney
("Down The Road" and "Back Where I Come From"), Shenandoah
("Two Dozen Roses") and Sawyer Brown ("All These Years" and
"Thank God For You"), and has studio credits that include albums by
Toby Keith, Linda Ronstadt, George Strait and Dolly Parton among many others.
Kenny
Chesney Taps Caroline Jones for Songs for the Saints
Florida-Based
Indie Singer/Songwriter Joins Intimate Tour
Wednesday, Dec. 5,
2018
NASHVILLE, Tenn. —
For Kenny Chesney, the Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour is about
going to the people, leaning in and creating music in a more intimate realm
than his massive 1.3 million fan, 19-stadium summer tours contain. With a focus
on arenas half the size he normally plays, it offers the songwriter from East
Tennessee the opportunity to introduce an emerging country artist who’s done it
outside the lines to No Shoes Nation.
“I met Caroline at the ‘Trying To Reason’ Hurricane Relief Benefit that Jimmy
Buffett did last year, and she struck me as being so pure in her approach to
the business and so pure in her intention as a songwriter,” Chesney says of his
tourmate. “I wanted to help someone willing to work outside the system, to give
them the opportunity to be heard and seen. Caroline is so fresh, so filled with
life and so consumed by her music, she seemed like the perfect person because
of everything No Shoes Nation is about.”
Wall Street Journal took notice this summer, writing “following her
own impulses, [Jones is] taking an unconventional route to the country-music”
of her ability to connect. Both Billboard and Rolling
Stone put the Florida-based singer/songwriter on their respective “15
Country Artists to Watch” and “10 New Country Artists You Need To Know”
lists. Bare Feet, her latest album, debuted at No. 15 on the iTunes
Chart without the major label press.
BREAKING UK NEWS! Caroline Jones appearing at C2C Festival 2019 – Details
& Tickets
An accomplished and tenacious multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar and piano,
Jones learned mandolin, banjo, harmonica and Dobro slide guitar by practicing
and watching YouTube videos. Jones, who largely plays all the instruments on
her projects, has a fresh take on modern country; working in collaboration with
noted producer Ric Wake, who’s produced Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Jennifer
Lopez, Jones’ kind of country has already attracted notice from Zac Brown,
who’s taken her on tour, and Buffett, who signed her to Mailboat Records.
“Kenny has shown genuine kindness and support to me and my vision for myself as
an artist,” says Jones of her addition to the Songs for the Saints 2019
Tour. “He is a songwriter, and a person of integrity and
philanthropy, in addition to being one of the greatest live entertainers out
there. I am really honored to be a part of his tour and be introduced to No
Shoes Nation.”
“Our tours have always been about bringing different kinds of music to No Shoes
Nation,” Chesney says. “We’ve taken Grace Potter out; Old Dominion who’s gone
on to do great things; Drummie Zeb from the Wailers came out and played with
us; Uncle Kracker for a couple summers. It’s about mixing things up, giving
people all kinds of music. And this year with David Lee Murphy and Caroline
Jones, we’ve got both ends of the spectrum, which I know No Shoes Nation is
going to love.”
Tickets for the Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour go on-sale Dec.
7 at 10 a.m. local. Blue Chair Bay Rum returns as the presenting sponsor for
Kenny Chesney’s tour.
KENNY
CHESNEY’S TOTALLY HEAVY METAL -- All 20 Albums – Live,
Christmas, Greatest Hits & More – Are Certified!
Kenny Chesney: Credit Allister Ann
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Few artists love
writing songs, finding songs and playing songs as much as Kenny
Chesney. Over the course of 20
albums, 15 of new music, the kid from East Tennessee has created some of
the 21st century’s most enduring classics. With his Trip Around
the Sun Tour heading into its final weekends, all of those songs are
now certified heavy metal.
With five multi-platinum, ten platinum and five gold titles, every album Chesney has recorded has received a
precious metal certification. For the man who just broke Billboard’s
record for Most No. 1s on the Country Airplay Chart, it was an achievement he
didn’t see coming.
“It always amazes me how deep into the catalogue No Shoes Nation goes,” marvels
the 8-time Entertainer of the Year. “People talk to me about songs from Me
and You; they talk to me about Hemingway’s Whiskey, Be
As You Areand even All I Want for Christmas. But you never
sit down and think about the fact they must have all made those albums a part
of their life. So to hear every record I’ve made is platinum – or gold – that
kind of makes me pause a little.”
Starting with All I Need To Know, released June 13, 1995, Kenny
Chesney built a career on making songs about the way people between the coasts
actually lived. The reflection of the people who loved the music’s lives saw an
unlikely kid move from gold to platinum certification with Me and You (1996)
and I Will Stand (1997), then 2x platinum on Everywhere
We Go (1999) and 5x platinum on Greatest Hits (2000).
That was just the warm-up. He started the 21st century blazing, as “Young”
and the ACM Single of the Year “The Good Stuff” connected with a whole new
urgency – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (2002) was
certified 4x platinum. When the Sun Goes Down (2004) also
went 4x platinum, and his introspective Be As You Are (Songs from an
Old Blue Chair) went platinum, followed later in 2005 with the 3x
platinum The Road and The Radio.
“We were blessed, and we were lucky,” Chesney explains. “I believed there
were a lot of people out there, who were living lives a
whole lot like mine. When I started writing and recording songs that reflected
that, people heard their own stories – and they really responded. I think
people deserve to hear songs that show them their life, and that’s always what
I’ve tried to do.”
It worked. Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates (2007), Lucky
Old Sun (2008), Hemingway’s Whiskey (2010), Welcome
To The Fish Bowl (2012) are all
platinum, while Life On A Rock (2013), The Big
Revival (2014) and Cosmic Hallelujah (2016) are gold. In addition, his Greatest
Hits II (2009) is platinum,
as is Live in No Shoes Nation (2017) and Live: Live
Those Songs Again (2006) is gold.
GOLD SINGLE:
David Lee Murphy & Kenny
Chesney: Everything's Gonna Be Alright released April 6, 2018 August 10,
2018 Reviver Records | certified Gold August 10, 2018 0.5 Million Digital units
PLATINUM
ALBUM:
Kenny Chesney: LIVE IN
NO SHOES NATION
| released Oct 27, 2017 Blue Chair Records / Columbia Nashville | certified
Platinum July 31, 2018 1 Million units
“You want to make music that
connects, that feels honest and that catches people up in the groove, the
melody and yes, the words,” says the man whose brand-new Songs for the
Saints was the No. 1 selling all-genre album the week it came out.
“To me, all the albums I loved gave me windows into a world I wanted, or lifted
up the world I was living in. Happy, sad, mad or whatever, I felt those
songs – and hearing this news makes me feel like people felt my songs the very
same way.”
In the midst of his record-smashing tour with 19 major stadiums, the enduring
nature of these songs and albums stands out. Early hits “Don’t Happen Twice”
and “How Forever Feels” draw the same roar as “American Kids,” “Somewhere With
You” and “Noise.” With all that passion, the heavy metal certification of every
single Sony Nashville album makes complete sense.
Kenny
Chesney Rocks 58,642; Plays 23 Hits After Rain Delay
Becomes
MetLife Stadium’s Biggest Ticket Seller in the Process
East Rutherford, N.J. -- After an evacuation and 45-minute storm delay, Kenny
Chesney hit the stage at MetLife Stadium at 10:12 pm determined to make up for
lost time. As “Beer In Mexico” surged through the speakers, the
songwriter/superstar from East Tennessee strode on stage, fully in command of a
band who’d come to play hard.
“Sometimes that waiting really fires you up,” explained the 8-time Entertainer
of the Year. “You’re ready to go, and then it builds, and builds. It doesn’t
hurt that the crowds in East Rutherford are such passionate, dig deep music
fans. This was our sixth time. They were so loud, so in the moment, I loved
listening to them sing these songs back to us.”
Playing to 58,642 members of No
Shoes Nation, Chesney not only had his own best attendance number, he became
the biggest ticket seller at MetLife Stadium. In six plays, the same number as
Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band and Bon Jovi,
Chesney’s total numbered 338,516 – 10,000 ahead of the next closest performer.
219,000 Is 8th #1 Billboard
200 Bow, 15th Country Album
Biggest Live Country Album Debut of This Century
Monday,
Nov. 6, 2017
Somewhere in No Shoes Nation —
When Kenny Chesney started listening
to show tapes from the last decade, it was just to relive some special moments
from a life lived largely on the road. But the more he listened, the more he
was struck by what he heard coming back from the other side of the footlights.
It was the fans – known as the No Shoes Nation – who knocked him out track
after track, summer after summer. And with that knowledge Live in No
Shoes Nation came to life.
“It’s such a rush to hear No
Shoes Nation in full force,” Chesney says. “As fast as the nights go down, I
didn’t even realize how good they sound – and the energy, the heart and the
voices are awesome in the moment – so I wanted to make sure they got to hear
what I was hearing during my year off.”
To heighten that connection
between the live experience and these recordings, Chesney opted to make the physical recordings available to anyone
purchasing a ticketto next summer’s Trip Around the Sun 2018
stadium shows.
Traditional album sales, were
likely driven by the concert ticket and album sale bundle. The cost of "Live In No Shoes
Nation" was combined with the price of each ticket sold online for next
year's tour. Ticket purchasers were contacted afterwards, inviting them to
redeem an email for the album. Only albums redeemed counted toward these
sales figures.
As the only country artist
on Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Acts of the Last 25 Years, in spite
of only becoming a true headliner in 2002, Chesney has been called “The King of
the Road” by The Wall Street Journal and “The People’s
Superstar” by Los AngelesTimes for his ability to connect at the
stadium level for the last dozen years.
“It is about the connection,”
he says. “Before the people ever get close, I’m sitting at the farthest point
from the stage feeling how far it is from where I’ll be standing. Whether it’s
somewhere intimate like Stone Pony in Asbury Park or AT&T Stadium, I want
to know how far to reach – so everyone is brought into these songs and this
moment.”
Evidently, it was a moment to
hold onto.
With stadium tickets on-sale, pre-orders and
physical album sales, Chesney’s Live
in No Shoes Nation comes in with total sales of 219,000. Beyond the sheer
number, Live in No Shoes Nation becomes Chesney’s eighthNo.1Billboard 200 debut, as well as his fifteenth
No. 1 Top Country Albums bow.
Live in No Shoes Nation is the
biggest country live debut this century. Beyond seminal concert
recordings Frampton Comes Alive, Bruce Springsteen’s Live
1975-1985, and the Allman Brothers’ Live at the Filmore East, Live
in No Shoes Nation is the biggest double live country release since
Garth Brooks’ 1998 Double Live. With this week’s sales, Chesney has
hit Gold long before the 30 days needed for certification.
Billboardreported that:
Most of that 219,000 sum was driven
by traditional album sales, bolstered by
a concert ticket/album bundle sale redemption promotion with Chesney’s
upcoming stadium tour. Live in No Shoes Nation was released on Oct. 27 via Blue
Chair/Columbia Nashville.
Nielsen Music does not detail
how much of any album’s sales are generated by concert ticket/album bundle offers. However, CD sales from
ticket bundles are generally categorized as internet sales by the company,
and Live in No Shoes Nation’s internet sales figure is 197,000. So, it’s likely most of that number is from the ticket
bundle — minus a small amount (perhaps in the low five-figures) — for
traditional sales from Amazon and other web retailers.
Chesney previously led the Billboard 200 with:
LIFE
ON A ROCK (released April 30, 2013; 152,805
copies sold; 86,413 Physical copies + 66,392 Digital albums; chart week May
18, 2013) in its first week at retail according to Nielsen SoundScan.)
LUCKY
OLD SUN (released Oct 14, 2008; 176,414 copies
sold; chart Nov 8, 2017)
THE
ROAD AND THE RADIO (released Nov 8, 2005)
BE
AS YOU ARE: SONGS FROM AN OLD BLUE CHAIR (released Jan 25, 2005)
WHEN
THE SUN GOES DOWN (released Feb 3, 2004; 3,7 million sold by Nov
2005)
NO
SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO PROBLEMS (released April 23, 2002; 235,000 copies sold in first week; earned a 4×
Platinum certification).
THE
BIG REVIVAL (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville; released Sept
23, 2014) debuted at No.2 on the Billboard
200 and No.1 of Top Country Albums (129,670 copies sold; Chart dated Oct. 11, 2014).
JUST
WHO I AM: POETS & PIRATES (released Sept 11, 2007) his tenth
studio album, debuted at No.2 on the
Billboard 200 and No.1 of Top
Country Albums (386,685 copies sold; Chart
dated Sept 29, 2007).
His 16th studio album COSMIC HALLELUJAH (Blue Chair/Columbia
Nashville; released Oct 28, 2016) sold and debuted at No.2 on the Billboard 200 and No.1
of Top Country Albums 89,000 units multi-metric
album consumption units; 79,485 copies in pure
sales). Cosmic Hallelujah marked Chesney’s 12th consecutive charting album to
debut inside the top four of the Billboard 200, going all the way back to
2004’s No.1 set WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN.
Chesney first debuted on the
Billboard 200 a little more than 20 years ago, when ME AND YOU entered the list at No.196 on the Sept. 28, 1996-dated
chart. It eventually peaked at No.78 the following year. He didn’t reach the
top 40 until 2000, when his Greatest Hits album debuted and peaked at No.13.
EVERYWHERE
WE GO" (released March 2, 1999) peaked at No.51 on the Billboard 200 and No.5 of Top Country Albums, opened with
30,000 units in 1999, and his 2000 "GREATEST
HITS" compilation sold 85,000 units in its opening week.
Live in No
Shoes Nation is a
29-track album and collects live highlights from Chesney’s various tours,
stretching back to 2007’s Flip Flop Summer tour. Among the guests on the
album: Taylor Swift, Dave Matthews,Grace Potter and Eric Church.Chesney’s last live album, 2006’s LIVE: LIVE
THOSE SONGS AGAIN (releasedSept 19, 2006;
145,829 copies sold; chart Oct 14, 2006), peaked at No.4 in its debut
frame, according to Nielsen Music.
“So much has happened over the
last 10 years,” Chesney marvels. “But the one thing that remained consistent,
that’s been there no matter what are the people of No Shoes Nation. They’ve
always been why I do what I do, but listening to all these
shows, I realized they’re the heartbeat to everything me and my road family do.
The more I heard those voices singing, the energy and the power, the more I
wanted everyone who’s ever come to our shows to hear it, too. Those moments
when you’re so completely free are the greatest feeling in the world…”
Thirty songs. Guests. Hits and
obscure tracks. Stadiums and local bars. It’s all here on Live in No
Shoes Nation. Until Kenny Chesney hits the road April 21 at Tampa’s
Raymond James Stadium, fans, friends and the No Shoes Nation can get their
summer on right here.
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