This has been a pretty heady time for Kenny Chesney. The "American Kids" singer was just inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Next week, his much-anticipated memoir, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, drops. So the 57-year-old Knoxville, Tennessee, native has plenty to look forward to. He also has lots to look back upon. Chesney was recently on No Shoes Radio on SiriusXM. He reflected on his unforgettable encounters with two giants of the music biz - Bruce Springsteen and George Jones.
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Chesney Met the Boss
Per Holler via No Shoes Radio, Chesney said he met Bruce Springsteen. "One night, I was in Holmdel, New Jersey. This was several years later, way after the No Shoes album came out and we were rolling really hard and we were playing the amphitheater in Holmdel, New Jersey and I get a call from my tour promoter, Louis Messina, and he says, 'Bruce Springsteen's getting ready to knock on your bus door,' and you're not really, I went, 'Okay...' and the next thing you hear is, and I open the door and it's really Bruce Springsteen, and he comes up on the bus and we chat a little bit and I had a couple of my guys."
Chesney added this. "He came by himself on his motorcycle, and I had a couple of my crew guys walking him out. He literally...he didn't watch from the side of the stage."
He mentioned, "[Springsteen] walked right through the audience and sat up at the front of house sound, at the front of house mixing board and watched the whole show, and then he came back to the bus and we sat and talked I bet for two hours and it was one, I talk about that moment in the book, and that started a really, really amazing friendship with Bruce and he didn't have to do that, but I'm glad he did."
The Singer Had a "Really Great Friendship" With George Jones
Chesney noted, "When I first started, about a year after I went on the road, somehow, I was picked to go on the George Jones and Tammy Wynette reunion tour...there was this kid from East Tennessee that heard George Jones and his grandmother's kitchen, and I was out on the road with them."
He went on, " One night, after a couple of weekends, George's wife Nancy came up to me...[S]he goes, 'Would you like to fly home with us?' and I'd never seen a private jet much less ridden in one, so all of a sudden, I'm on the plane with George and we're talking about my life. I'm telling him about my family and how much we loved him, and I didn't want to go overboard because I didn't want to seem like that guy, but I mean, he really took it in and loved it and that was the beginning of a really great friendship."
