A major turning point in his career.
Kenny Chesney is gearing up to release his 21st studio album, Silver Sands Marina, on Friday, September 25th, and he’s teaming up with long-time producer Buddy Cannon to produce once again. And of course, he’s been making the rounds with press and doing interviews, and during a conversation for CBS Sunday Morning, Chesney opened up about the famous moment in 2009 where he simply broke down on stage.
It was at a stop in Indianapolis, Indiana during a performance of “Better as a Memory” where Chesney just broke down, and cried due to what he now says was exhaustion and burnout from his career. From the time he put out “Fall in Love” in 1995, and a few years later, his first radio #1 “She’s Got It All” in 1997, he hit the ground running, releasing plenty more hits and touring all over the world.
But because he was so in it, he never took time to slow down or take the temperature of how he was feeling internally and emotionally. And for whatever reason, that Indiana show was the breaking point. Thankfully, his 20,000 fans stepped in to finish singing the song for him, but the Country Music Hall of Famer explained that for many years before, he had been trying to figure out exactly who he was and how to present that in his music.
He noted that he had an “18-song greatest hits album” but nobody knew who he was:
“You know what’s crazy is, I had an 18-song greatest hits album, and nobody knew who I was. They knew the songs, but I wasn’t comfortable in my skin yet, I didn’t know who I was supposed to be as an artist yet.
I would go do shows, and they would go, oh yeah, that’s the guy that sings that song, that’s the guy that sings that song. When I started being my true, authentic self, that’s when everything changed.”
Chesney noted that his mom knew he had drifted too far from his east Tennessee roots, though he couldn’t see it at that tine because he was already “so addicted to seeking and adventure” of his newfound fame and success:
“She wanted her 12-year-old boy back in ways, and he was gone. Gone, gone, gone. It hit me a little bit, but I was already so addicted to seeking and adventure, and all of it, and all of these new things happening in my life that I dismissed it.”
But Chesney says that famous Indiana show was a big turning point, when he realized that he wasn’t the artist he wanted to be and he needed to find a way out of it:
“A big one. In that moment, I was so exhausted and numb to all of it, that it wasn’t making me happy. I wasn’t creating the same way, I wasn’t connecting to the audience, and I went… it just hit me. It took sports to get me out of that funk.”
Of course, the life of a touring artist takes a toll, especially when you’re as in demand as he is. When you’re not used to handling all of that, I can easily see how it can really get to you over time and years, even if you don’t realize it for a while.
Chesney went on to release the song “Boys of Fall,” which was a #1 hit on the country charts, as well as a minor crossover hit too when it peaked at #18 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. He later released a documentary of the same name for ESPN where he interviewed tons of coaches and players on life lessons that the game taught all of them, which he says was a wake up call for him too:
“I woke up one day and I went, I’m back.”
Chesney remains one of the most successful country artists of the last 20 years, and of course, fans love him for his beachy, breezy music that is usually about love and life on the islands, but as his momma pointed out, he makes sure to stay grounded to his roots too and that has seemed to keep him right on track ever since.
Sometimes, you just need a good cry in front of 20,000 fans who love you to help you realize it… sounds pretty therapeutic to me, honestly.
You can watch the full interview below.
The 2009 performance:
“Better as a Memory”
