Heading into the final leg of Heart Life Music: the book event tour, Kenny Chesney is marveling at the places he’s been, the people who’ve shown up and the way a book can come to life talking about it with co-author and National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards Independent Journalist of the Year Holly Gleason. As he enthuses, “Coming to see us at the stadiums, I totally understand. But you have to really love someone to come listen to them talk! All the laughter, the cheers and those moments of recognizing each other in the stories? It’s been a wild ride and incredible launch.”
Closing out the last leg with a walk-on opening interview on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” re-airing all week, Chesney heads south for a trio of book events in Florida. Starting with a sold-out-in-minutes appearance at Key West’s iconic Tennessee Williams Theater today, Nov. 10, then going to another sold-out-in-minutes event in Tampa, where he has kicked off so many tours at Raymond James Stadium, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar and recent Country Music Hall of Fame inductee wraps his tour up near the ocean, the sand and places where Heart Life Music was created.
“Beyond all the inspiration and the memories places like Key West, Tampa, West Palm Beach and South Florida hold,” Chesney explains, “an awful lot of interviews, editing and Holly’s actual writing was done in the area, so this seemed the perfect way to conclude bringing Heart Life Music into the world.
“When we were asked to be the final event of the Miami Book Fair’s opening weekend, which is such a big deal, it made me feel like this book really was something that struck a chord with people who know books. In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m going back to the Super Bowl, which anyone who’s read the book, will understand. But it’s David Wegman, Jimmy Buffett’s Keys, my own first headlining tour that kicked off in West Palm and where I signed that contract with my soul, plus all those years rocking the pirate ship at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium… Like starting the book tour at ETSU, this is a whole other homecoming.”
Having already been named to Barnes & Noble’s “Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2025” list, Chesney’s love letter to the magic carpet ride from a little boy dreaming to dream to Moscow, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, the Caribbean, Cabo Wabo and Jamaica alongside friends and heroes including George Jones, Eddie Van Halen, Alabama, Steve Miller, Sammy Hagar, Grace Potter, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Walsh, the Wailers, Uncle Kracker and Willie Nelson is registering with readers across the country. Whether for beach reading, a snowy afternoon or a commute, Heart Life Music offers an escape through music, sports, boats and points beyond where most of us journey.
Establishing a voice that captured coming of age and living life as fully as possible in the 21st century, Chesney wants each talk to reflect his unique relationship with No Shoes Nation, the music and anyone seeking inspiration to create their own place in the world.
Heart Life Music is available for purchase HERE, along with limited remaining tickets to the Miami Book Fair event. For more information, visit KennyChesney.com.
About The Authors
One of contemporary American music’s biggest names, Kenny Chesney was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year and was named Billboard’s No.1 Country Artist of the 21st Century. Selling out America’s major stadiums for two decades and playing to over a million fans every summer since 2002, Variety pronounced him “country music’s only true long-term stadium act.” The East Tennessee songwriter/superstar has over 105 Platinum certifications, won the prestigious Entertainer of the Year eight times, as well as holding Billboard’s record for the most Country Airplay No. 1s with 36 chart-topping songs that define coming of age in the flyover in the 21st Century. This year, the game-changing superstar became the first country artist to perform at the groundbreaking Sphere, taking No Shoes Nation into a whole new dimension, creating a space to work hard, play hard, love hard and come together in the spirit of celebrating all the moment offers. Heart Life Music is his first book.
Holly Gleason’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Library of Congress’ National Registry of Sound Recordings, among other outlets. She was the LA Press Club’s Entertainment Journalist of the Year and the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Association’s Independent Journalist of the Year. A former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame/Case Western Reserve Fellow, she’s the creator of Belmont Book Award-winning Woman Walk The Line, and co-authored Miranda Lambert’s New York Times best-seller Y’All Eat Yet as well as Prine on Prine: Interviews & Encounters.
