For Immediate Release
20 November 2005
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Kenny Chesney Bows 1st ABC Network TV Special Nov. 23
With the #1The Road & The Radio, Chesney Takes Fans "Somewhere In The Sun"On The Road, Onstage, On The Water for a Very Personal Look


   St Somewhere: When Kenny Chesney takes a stage, he means business. And when the laidback superstar from Luttrell, Tennessee kicks back, he makes it mean just as much. So when ABC began talking to the soft-spoken firebrand about a primetime television special, they were struck by the dichotomy of a man who's so electric onstage and so chilled out when he's not.

   "You gotta recharge your batteries to do what I do," admits the man who's won both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year Awards, which are given to recognize excelling in the realm of country music. "We hit it pretty hard out on that stage, but I don't know that we hit it any harder than the fans throw it back at us. So to stay in top form and top intensity, I make it a point to get away and unwind.

   "I didn't necessarily know that the people at ABC were going to find that interesting, but they did; and I think what they've captured I is a pretty great portrait of our life on the road, everything the fans don't see before we hit that stage, and how I pull it all in when we're not touring and reflect."

   Shot throughout Chesney's record-setting Somewhere In The Sun Tour -- and anchored by his performance at Pittsburgh's Heinz Stadium -- this is a no-holds- barred glimpse into the centrifugal force that drove of one of the year's biggest tours in any genre. Indeed, for the first half of 2005, Chesney had outsold the #2 tour -- by rock icons U2 -- by over 200,000 tickets.

   "For us, it doesn't seem like that," allows the man whose past three albums have sold in excess of 4 million copies and his brand new The Road & The Radio became his fourth album to debut at #1 on Billboard's all-genre Top 200. "We hear things -- 3 nights sold out in Atlanta, the football stadium in Boston, 10 minutes and the tickets are gone -- but those are words. For us, it's those faces and the energy that comes at the stage where we feel what's going on. Heck, it's the sounds you hear floating into the backstage compound from the parking lot that get us going, 'cause that's where the party really is."

   Backstage. Onstage. Beyond the stage. And in the quiet where the creativity all comes together. This is the tv special both the hardcore fans and the curious have been waiting for. With "Who You'd Be Today" sitting at #2 after just 8 weeks at country radio and an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel" tonight (Nov, 21), the American Music Awards Tuesday, Nov. 22 and then "Kenny Chesney: Somewhere In The Sun" on Nov, 23, the ABCs of Kenny Chesney are very literal, indeed: all you have to do is tune into ABC and watch.

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