Eight songs into Kenny Chesney’s no-holds-barred set at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar finally paused for a moment, ran his hands down the legs of his jeans and told the at-capacity crowd, “I got asked every day, ‘Why Tampa?’ All you gotta’ do is listen to this…” When the shrieking subsided, he then said he was going to play a new song about turning negative energy into positive energy, and launched into “Get Along,” his first single for Blue Chair/Warner Bros. Nashville.
“All I want any time I get on a stage is to turn peoples’ bad days into something great,” says the man The Los Angeles Times deemed “The People’s Superstar,” “and take their great days and make them everything you could ever want. That’s what music does: change the moment, and that’s a big part of why I do what I do.”
For 127 minutes in Tampa, that’s just what Chesney did. With a lean show, twenty-five songs and an audience that started lining up before daybreak, the 8-time Entertainer of the Year embraced new songs (“All The Pretty Girls,” “Get Along”), old favorites (“Don’t Happen Twice,” “How Forever Feels”), mid-career classics (“Young,” “I Go Back,” “Anything But Mine”) and solo acoustics (“You & Tequila,” “Old Blue Chair”) for a show defined by ebullience, electric guitars and Chesney’s irrepressible energy.
Reaching for “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” his duet with David Lee Murphy, Chesney mined pictures from his Love For Love City rescue relief efforts to give people a sense of the devastation and work that’s gone into restoring the US/BVI’s Hurricane Irma relief efforts. Beyond the leveled buildings, island natives and school children, the montage focused on some of the over 1,000 animals rescued.
“Music is medicine, and it’s energy, and it’s fuel,” says the man who will play 19 stadiums this summer. “To me, when music is really firing, it can help you do impossible things, lift you out of unthinkable problems and give you a reason to keep going.”
Using “When The Sun Goes Down” as a way to introduce his band, Chesney lingered on the empty keyboard rig, then explained to the crowd that his musical director Wyatt Beard was in the hospital here having emergency surgery two days prior. Taking the collective energy, he asked the fans “on the count of three” to yell, “We love you, Wyatt!”
Like much of the night, the response was deafening. Beaming, the man who ran from side to side, slid down the strut, brought a special needs child onstage to rock and worked up a full body sweat from the minute the second song came to play. There was no question about his – or the band’s – intention, and the audience gave even better than they got.
“When people come together in the name of music, then let go,” Chesney marvels, “there’s no feeling like it. Listening to the fans sing ‘American Kids’ and ‘Setting the World On Fire’ was a total rush. It’s not the only reason I do this, but it’s a good one.”
Kenny Chesney’s 2018 Trip Around the Sun Tour Presented by Blue Chair Bay Rum
Saturday, April 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miller Park
Saturday, May 5, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. Bank Stadium
Thursday, May 10, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach
Friday, May 11, Charlotte, North Carolina, PNC Music Pavilion
Saturday, May 12, Raleigh, North Carolina, Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
Wednesday, May 16, Del Valle, Texas, Austin360 Amphitheater
Thursday, May 17, The Woodlands, Texas, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Saturday, May 19, Arlington, Texas, AT&T Stadium
Thursday, May 24, West Palm Beach, Florida, Coral Sky Amphitheatre
Saturday, May 26, Atlanta, Georgia, Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Thursday, May 31, Noblesville, Indiana, The Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
Saturday, June 2, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Heinz Field
Wednesday, June 6, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Blossom Music Center
Thursday, June 7, Syracuse, New York, Lakeview Amphitheater
Saturday, June 9, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Field
Friday, June 15, Bristow, Virginia, Jiffy Lube Live
Saturday, June 16, Columbus, Ohio, MAPFRE Stadium
Wednesday, June 20, Mountain View, California, Shoreline Amphitheatre
Thursday, June 21, Chula Vista, California, Mattress Firm Amphitheatre
Saturday, June 23, Phoenix, Arizona, Chase Field
Thursday, June 28, West Valley City, Utah, USANA Amphitheatre
Saturday, June 30, Denver, Colorado, Sports Authority Field at Mile High
Tuesday, July 3, Stateline, Nevada, Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino
Thursday, July 5, Nampa, Idaho, Ford Idaho Center
Saturday, July 7, Seattle, Washington, CenturyLink Field
Thursday, July 12, Rogers, Arkansas, Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion
Saturday, July 14, Kansas City, Missouri, Arrowhead Stadium
Thursday, July 19, Southaven, Mississippi, BankPlus Amphitheater
Saturday, July 21, St. Louis, Missouri, Busch Stadium
Thursday, July 26, Cincinnati, Ohio, Riverbend Music Center
Saturday, July 28, Chicago, Illinois, Soldier Field
Thursday, August 2, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
Saturday, August 4, Detroit, Michigan, Ford Field
Saturday, August 11, Nashville, Tennessee, Nissan Stadium
Thursday, August 16, Bangor, Maine, Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion
Saturday, August 18, East Rutherford, New Jersey, MetLife Stadium
Wednesday, August 22, Columbia, Maryland, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Friday, August 24, Foxborough, Massachusetts, Gillette Stadium
Saturday, August 25, Foxborough, Massachusetts, Gillette, Stadium
