With three sets of tour prep and rehearsals in full groove, Kenny Chesney took some time out to return to MetLife Stadium, where he’s sold over 400,000 tickets since the stadium opened, for a heart-to-heart conversation with NBC’s Willie Geist. Tracing both his evolution as a stadium-sized pioneer and looking at all the pieces of his musical foundation that led to the vast BORN, the only country artist in Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Acts of the Last 25 Years for the last 15 years took the opportunity to truly consider the road to being a billion-ticket-selling superstar and the songwriting roots that helped him speak to an audience who had long been ignored.

“It’s strange being in a place like MetLife we know so well when it’s cold, dark and raining,” Chesney mused before his interview. “It’s just here, waiting. Knowing all the faces we’ve seen light up, the staff, the memories; it’s a pretty great place to sit down and talk to someone like Willie Geist, who gets the music and recognizes so much of what we do is about building and trying to grow. Nothing exists in a vacuum; not a tour, certainly not an album – and we still make albums – so coming somewhere so special to us was a great place to sit down and look at the journey to No Shoes Nation.”

With “Take Her Home” cresting the Top 10, and the shoot-your-shot gusto of “Just To Say We Did,” the tangled letting go of “Thinkin’ Bout,” the naughty get-out-of-jail invitation of “Guilty Pleasure” or the toast to those who have passed on “Wherever You Are Tonight,” Chesney’s first album in four years is one of his most comprehensive. If not a culmination of a life lived in music, it certainly explores a plethora of styles, realities and Chesney’s unrelenting positivity.

“This close to a tour, I realized: we couldn’t do the traditional record release media stuff most people get to do,” Chesney explained. “So I wanted to do one thing that would really matter and make sense; to talk to someone who wasn’t looking to do lifestyle stuff, but really dig in and consider what this all means. When you do that, Willie Geist is the man to call.”

Beyond their conversation about music, especially BORN, the pair talked about sports, dreams, living a life that matters and how No Shoes Nation is an outgrowth of how Chesney and his people view the world. Philosophical and far-ranging, the extended sit down and conversation in the stands achieves a deeper look at what fires the songwriter/superstar from East Tennessee known for his high-intensity concerts and major tours that have sold over a million tickets every summer since 2002.

As street date approaches, a reminder that anyone who has already purchased tickets to the Sun Goes Down 2024 Tour received an email with a link to purchase the special BORN Tour Edition with three extra live tracks, as will anyone buying tickets going forward. Top tier fan club members may also purchase the Tour Edition to recognize their longstanding love of Chesney’s music.

“Rehearsals are going great,” Chesney says. “I can’t wait to see everybody in Tampa! We’re getting ready, and we’re all in all over town. To get inside BORN, just watch Willie on Sunday.”

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