THE REST OF THE TOUR
Kenny Chesney’s HEART LIFE MUSIC FINAL Book Events
“Hello, Philly, Jersey, Key West, LA, Tampa”
Philadelphia 11/3, Bergen, NJ 11/4, Beverly Hills, CA 11/7
Key West 11/10, Tampa 11/11
Bringing Intimate Conversations about His Path, Heroes, Songs,
Making Music, Setbacks, Big Fun + How to Chase an Impossible Dream
All Ticketed Guests will Receive a Signed Copy of HEART LIFE MUSIC
Complete Tour Now Announced – Ticket Details Below
HEART LIFE MUSIC In-Stores Nov. 4; Pre-Order Available Now
Kenny Chesney's HEART LIFE MUSIC Tour Adds Chicago, Nashville & Miami Book Fair
When Kenny Chesney started work on Heart Life Music, he had no idea what would unfold. But like everything he does, he committed to the process, dug in and really examined the road from being a sports-obsessed kid lying in the yard and staring at the sky, to becoming the man the Wall Street Journal deemed “the King of the Road.” Football stadiums, student bluegrass band trips to Moscow, Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica, George Jones’ plane and experiencing Key West with his friend Jimmy Buffett are just some of the places the songwriter-superstar from East Tennessee found himself revisiting to tell the story.
“And after all of it, I can’t wait to share all the characters I’ve met, people who’ve been behind the scenes, the dead ends and places that maybe seemed like not much with readers,” Chesney enthuses. “Because every single step, smile or hard lesson was part of this crazy ride. I had no idea how much I’d remember and learn about how we got here, but I am really excited to share it with No Shoes Nation.
“Whether a Lower Broadway that no longer exists, and almost can’t be imagined, or the insane crowds at Chicago’s Soldier Field over the last 20 years, I’ve tried to make this book tour go places that really stuck with us, made us – all of us – into the community we are,” he continues. “These stories aren’t just postcards from stops along the way, they are love letters to every person or place who was there. It’s why the final end papers are a picture from Soldier Field in 2024 with all those people that made it magic.”
Adding three more dates, Heart Life Music: the Book Tour will go to Chicago the day after release for an event at the Copernicus Center, presented by The Book Stall. Then Chesney will head to Nashville for two book talks at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater, in partnership with Parnassus Books.
“I wanted to go to the heart of the country, and Chicago sure represents that for me. I wanted to go to the place where all of my music came together, the songwriters and creative community were so generous and encouraging to me. Teaming with Parnassus Books for an event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, yards from the Turf where I’d played for tips when I arrived, is a dream come true.
“And we were asked to be a headliner for the opening of the Miami Book Fair. I feel like we’re going back to the Super Bowl, which when you read the book, you’ll get the reference. It’s an honor to be part of such a respected and iconic event. And the way I love South Florida – from West Palm Beach’s Coral Sky to the Tortuga Music Festival, Miami and the Keys – this is a whole other homecoming.”
Joined for freewheeling conversations that explore the story and process by two-time LA Press Club Music Criticism and Entertainment Journalist of the Year and co-author Holly Gleason, Chesney will deep dive into Heart Life Music. Establishing a voice that captured coming of age and living life as fully as possible in the 21st Century, the man the Los Angeles Times called “the people’s superstar” wants each event to reflect his unique relationship with No Shoes Nation, the music and anyone seeking inspiration to create their own place in the world.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5
7:00PM Copernicus Center
Chicago, IL
Bookseller: The Book Stall
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET HERE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6
5:30PM & 8:00PM Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater
Nashville, TN
Bookseller: Parnassus Books
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET HERE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Miami Book Fair
7:00PM, Chapman Center
Miami Dade College, Downtown Miami, FL
Bookseller: Books & Books
MBF Members only tickets on sale: Friday, Sept 19
General public tickets: Monday, October 13 HERE
Known for commanding the largest stages nationwide, Heart Life Music ventures to places long gone, makes unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas, drifts across the waters of the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Beyond meeting and collaborating with heroes, forging transcendent friendships in the islands and beyond, Chesney’s introspective look at the songs and sound that defined No Shoes Nation offers the intimacy of sharing a slow afternoon on the water. Each ticketholder will receive a signed copy of the book.
Kenny Chesney Kicks Off HEART LIFE MUSIC @ ETSU, Boston Nov. 1 + 2
With the audio book underway, the final edits complete and the start of fall ahead, Country Music Hall of Fame 2025 electee Kenny Chesney knew he wanted to do something very special to launch his upcoming Heart Life Music. Tracing the path of a pretty regular kid living well beyond the lights of Knoxville, Tennessee, he decided to kick off his book tour at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, where his dream truly took wing, with a special event at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts on Nov. 1 at 3pm.
“Having looked at my life in ways I never thought of,” says the man Wall Street Journal called “the King of the Road” about the process, “I realized: I’ve always loved sports, music and the sea. But the idea I’d chase this dream came together in Johnson City, trying to learn Doc Watson picking from Jack Tottle, playing Quarterbacks and Chuckey’s, and going to Russia with East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass Band.
“For me, going back to East Tennessee State University where all of this began was the only way to kick this book tour off. Hopefully, someone in the audience who’s wondering about their own dream might find what they need to get serious about whatever it is they’re chasing.”
And if he’s leaning into his heart, it stands to reason that Chesney would hit Boston the next day. With his legendary Gillette Stadium shows, including a three-day run in 2024, No Shoes Nation was named in 2012 and he passed a million fans in 2018, as well as the friends he’s made from the region over the years, the 8-time Entertainer of the Year will appear at Back Bay Events Center Nov. 2 at 7pm.
“Whether the friends I made in the islands long before this journey kicked into gear, Ginny Brophy who welcomed a kid with nothing going on at WKLB, the crazy fun with Grace Potter, sailing and more with Ethel Kennedy around the Nantucket Sound, conversations with the Globe’s Steve Morse or Super Bowls with Robert Kraft and his organization, there’s been something about the people of New England that recognizes the kid from East Tennessee in me. I like to say, ‘They believe me,’ but I think it’s more they know the same grit and passion that’s driven me and my team all these years.
“I know these are intimate events,” Chesney continues. “But I want everyone to really be able to hear, absorb and feel like we’ve come together before they dive into the book. There’s a lot there, and a lot that went into it – and I want to have very real conversations about all of it to give people a real sense of the role where they live has played in my journey and the man I wanted to be and – hopefully – became.”
Chesney will be joined by two-time LA Press Club Music Critic, friend and co-author Holly Gleason for freewheeling conversations to enrich reading Heart Life Music, anchoring the places book events will occur. Having found his voice delivering the experiences of coming of age and living life as fully as possible in the 21st Century, the songwriter/superstar wants each event to reflect his relationship with No Shoes Nation, the music and anyone trying to find inspiration to create their own place in the world.
Saturday, November 1
Location: East Tennessee State University Martin Center for the Arts in the ETSU Foundation Grand Hall
Time: 3:00pm
Tickets: On sale this Friday, September 19 at 10am ET HERE
Bookseller: ETSU Bookstore
Sunday, November 2
Location: Back Bay Events Center
Time: 7:00pm
Tickets: On sale this Friday, September 19 at 10am ET HERE
Bookseller: Harvard Book Store
Known for commanding the largest stages nationwide, Heart Life Music ventures to places long gone, makes unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas, drifts across the waters of the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Beyond meeting and collaborating with heroes, forging transcendent friendships in the islands and beyond, Chesney’s introspective look at the songs and sound that defined No Shoes Nation offers the intimacy of sharing a slow afternoon on the water.
About the Book
Heart Life Music
by Kenny Chesney
with Holly Gleason
On Sale: Nov. 4, 2025 | William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover ISBN: 9780063423107 | $32.50
E-book ISBN: 9780063423114 | $14.99
Digital Audio ISBN: 9780063423121 | $27.99
Preorder HERE
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 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.
HEART*LIFE*MUSIC: Kenny Chesney's 1st True Book Arrives Nov. 4
Kenny Chesney, one of American music’s most iconic songwriter/stadium fillers, will release his first book, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, with William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, on Nov. 4, 2025. The freewheeling take on the superstar’s journey from small town East Tennessee dreamer to commanding the largest stages across the nation will capture the sparks of creativity, venture to places long gone, make unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas, drift across the waters of the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, encounter and collaborate with heroes, engage with a coterie of singular folks, friends and inspirations, and always find the joy of being unabashedly alive.
Raised largely by a single mother and extended family, Chesney’s life was built on sports, church, community – and the music he found everywhere. A gift of a guitar his freshman year and the resonance of East Tennessee State University’s Old Time Music and Bluegrass program sparked a passion no one saw coming. From playing for tips to trying to get a foot in the door, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC is a postcard from a Nashville that no longer exists: where songwriters define life, characters encourage young dreamers and a tenacious 20-something faced impossible odds and obstacles before starting to find a glimmer of success.
“This is not my memoir,” Chesney cautions, “but something far better. It is almost a love letter to people who shaped and inspired me, the fans who’ve been there from tiny bars, radio stations who believed when nobody else did, a team who just kept coming back, legends who gave me wisdom and opportunities and all the friends who’ve been there along the way. To me, that’s where the music came from – and this is the story of how it turned into the soundtrack for the way No Shoes Nation lives their lives, too.”
Whether playing for the homeless and hookers on a very different Lower Broadway in Nashville, a rickety Silver Eagle bus deemed “the Iron Lung,” seeing other young artists zoom by him, or sharing a renowned rock record label with Widespread Panic, Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit and Gov’t Mule that had no country department, Chesney’s ability to lean in, believe and keep working forged a determination to withstand whatever happened. With an almost triple-Platinum Greatest Hits, it was the decision to make music for himself and the people like him that blew his creativity and career wide open.
Nine No. 1 all-genre Billboard Top 200 Album debuts, 17 No. 1 Country Album debuts, 8.6 billion on-demand audio streams and over 1 billion on-demand video streams is a lot of music made, played and ingested by a fan-base that Variety proclaims “a concertgoing community rivaled perhaps only by Parrotheads and Deadheads.” Moving at what seemed faster than the speed of sound, Chesney for the most part eschewed celebrity to keep his focus on the people; with songs that would resonate with them and a show that would not only give every bit of energy he and his band had, but provide a space for No Shoes Nation to converge, have fun, make new friends and revel in the glory of being who they were.
“I always said I’d never write a book,” he marvels. “Too many things happened almost to be believed, let alone lived, but I realized with the world moving in such fast forward motion, too much of what made Nashville, the music business and our lives great would be lost to the churn of the next click. To have been in a room as a kid writing with Dean Dillon, have Sean Payton call an NFL press conference to announce he’s drafting me to the Saints, be in Tuff Gong Studios with Aston “Family Man” Barrett and Alvin “Seeco” Patterson or on a private plane with George Jones after opening for him defies logic. So, for everyone in No Shoes Nation, I realized: you deserved to share the magic.”
Written with longtime friend and collaborator Holly Gleason, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC celebrates the life and rise of a man whose songs have set the tone and whose shows have anchored a world without borders for the last quarter century. From the road, stage, quiet moments and unthinkable thrills, it’s a book for anyone who’s ever wondered what the trip to No Shoes Nation might be like.
About The Authors
One of contemporary American music's biggest names, Kenny Chesney has been selling out major stadiums across the nation for two decades; playing to over a million fans every summer since 2002, prompting Variety to pronounce him “country music’s only true long-term stadium act.” He’s sold over 31 million albums and won the prestigious Entertainer of the Year title eight times, as well as holding Billboard's record for the most Country Airplay No. 1s with 33 chart-topping songs that defined coming of age in the flyover in the 21st Century. This year, the game-changing superstar becomes the first country artist to perform at the groundbreaking Sphere, again 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, his popularity continues to grow year after year. HEART*LIFE*MUSIC is his first book.
Holly Gleason’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and 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.
About the Book
HEART*LIFE*MUSIC
by Kenny Chesney
with Holly Gleason
On Sale: Nov. 4, 2025 | William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover ISBN: 9780063423107 | $32.50
E-book ISBN: 9780063423114 | $14.99
Digital Audio ISBN: 9780063423121 | $27.99
Preorder HERE