When Kenny Chesney sets his mind to it, there will be a new way to do it! With “Wild Child,” the song celebrating the essence of a woman’s free spirit, he wanted a video that captured the life, love and beauty that shines from the inside out – and he captured it with longtime creative collaborator Shaun Silva and good friend/songwriter Gretchen Rhodes in Hawaii, where she now lives.
To debut the video, Chesney didn’t want to merely throw it out there. So working with Good Morning America, where he announced his 2015 The Big Revival Tour, and USA Today, he found way to give “Wild Child” a multi-platform debut.
Tuesday morning Ginger Zee with ABC’s Good Morning America gave viewers a sneak peek of the clip, showing the majesty of the Hawaii most people never see and capturing Rhodes in all her natural glory.
“Shaun really captured everything that makes Robin – and every woman just like her – and I know people get their music in so many different places,” Chesney explains. “I wanted to give the clip several opportunities to be seen beyond the traditional country outlets, because I think no matter what kind of music you love, this woman is someone everyone should celebrate.
“I’m just fortunate that places like Good Morning America and USA Today will partner with me on something like this. I try to only ask when it’s truly something special – and I believe ‘Wild Child’ is.”
Surfing, hiking, riding horses, paddle boarding, being, dreaming and basking in being alive, “Wild Child” is a love letter to a woman in full who is committed to living life on her terms. For Rhodes, who has played music all over Europe, the Virgin Islands and Hawaii, the clip celebrates her own life – and that of so many others.
“Maybe it’s sitting on a mountain, going back to school, traveling the world,” Chesney marvels. “But it is a song about any woman so hungry to engage life, she spends her days trying to taste it all… You don’t have to be a gypsy to be a free spirit, but just someone so in love with life, you will never get enough. To see a woman like that is a pretty amazing thing.”
Joined by hippie rocker Grace Potter on the track, “Wild Child” was the most added song at country radio this week. “Wild Child” is a song for any man who’s ever loved a woman from the inside out.
With Academy of Country Music nominations for Song, Single and Video of the Year for “American Kids,” Chesney understands pushing what music can contain. The multiple week No. 1 “American Kids” and “’Til It’s Gone” became Chesney’s 25th and 26th No. 1s – and now there’s “Wild Child,” four minutes that says so much about what gives women real value.
