For Immediate Release
10 March 2004
For More Information
Holly Gleason for Joe's Garage
Wes Vause for BNA Nashville

With New Album + Tour About To Kick-Off,
Kenny Chesney Nabs Three ACM Nominations

  Nashville, TN: He was sliding through traffic on his way to rehearsals
for the upcoming Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lotta Love Tour, when Kenny
Chesney's cell phone rang. And rang. And rang. And rang and rang and rang. And with
all the calls he's been getting since When The Sun Goes Down debuted at #1 on
Billboard's Top 200, he's taken to not answering it when he's en route to a
major rehearsal day -- that way, he can keep his head on the task at hand, which
this morning was getting the light show sorted out.

   "But whoever it was, they just wouldn't stop calling back, so I finally
figured, 'I better answer it...'," said Chesney with a laugh. "But truth be
told, I was so annoyed, I almost threw the damn thing out the window."

   Chesney's world has been moving so fast -- aside from a 3-city-a-day
blast for the first two weeks of When The Sun Goes Down, the Keg in the Closet
commando college tour, "Good Morning America," "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "The Late
Show with Conan O'Brien," he just wrapped up "A&E Live By Request" and "Kenny
at the Movies: One Night Only" -- he'd surrendered to the thing that mattered
most to him: rather than living by the calendar, he'd started living his life
based on how many days until his tour kicked off in Houston on St. Patrick's
Day.

   For those of you wishing to be on Kenny Time, by the way, it's 7 days and
counting. So with all that trajectory, it's no wonder the reigning Academy of
Country Music Top Male Vocalist and Single of the Year winner lost track of
the fact that the nominations were being announced this morning.

   "It was news to me," Chesney continued with a laugh. "Good news… but I
was a little hot when I picked up the phone with a 'WHAT do YOU want?!' Because
I was pretty far into how I wanted to video stuff to go… and work with the
lights. I felt pretty silly when it was my manager, saying 'Well, you got
three…'."

   For Chesney, who just received his double platinum certification for When
The Sun Goes Down, which is just 30 days old and therefore ineligible for
Album of the Year, the nominations were for Entertainer, Top Male and Song of the
Year for the 7 week #1 cautionary ballad about how life's mishaps can be the
gifts that define us "There Goes My Life." And with "When The Sun Goes Down" --
his percolating tropi-country duet with Detroit rock/rap/r&b popster Unkle
Kracker -- also missing the nomination cut-off, Chesney's gonna have a lot of
steam going into next year's ACMs.

   "It's kind of a drag that Kracker doesn't get to be nominated this year,"
acknowledges Chesney, "but I bet if we ask him to come hang out with us at
the show, he'll be there. One thing about Unkle Kracker, he likes to kick back
and have a good time… so the ACMs should be right up his ally. Heaven knows,
this song has turned out to be type casting for the two of us; I can't wait to
take it out on tour!"

   Though Guitars, Tiki Bars first leg returns keith urban to Chesney's
whirlwind road along with Dierks Bentley, look for Unkle Kracker and reigning
Academy of Country Music Group of the Year Rascal Flatts to take it over for the
outdoor summer shows. And either way, given the rehearsals that're now under
way, wherever you get to see the Luttrell, Tennessean, it's gonna be crazy.

   "So much has happened… you just try to keep up with it all, and some days
you barely do. This is one of those days! I don't know how I forgot about the
nominations… Normally, my publicist reminds me, but she's had her hands so
full, too, she forgot to nag. Needless to say, we're all thrilled -- and pretty
ready to get back out there. Seven days, and it's all happening… AGAIN!"

##########