For Immediate Release
10 March 2005
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Kenny Plays Houston Rodeo On A Stool --
Nearly 70,000 Cheer Injured Singer Who Dedicates "Good Stuff" To Chris LeDoux
 

    Houston: He may've worn a whole other kind of boot on his right leg, but nothing was going to stop Kenny Chesney from playing the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo for the fifth consecutive year. Though he needed to sing most of the evening's songs perched on a stool, he was determined to rock the crowd of approximately 70,000 who showed up on a Wednesday night.

    With the house announcer saying, "An injury may've made Kenny Chesney postpone the beginning of his 2005 tour, but he was determined not to miss our Rodeo. So like any great cowboy, Kenny Chesney is going to perform hurt! Ladies and gentlemen, the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year," the pumped-up country star emerged from a black truck and took the stage to peels of screaming.

    Debuting several songs from his nearly quadruple platinum Country Music Association Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down -- including "The Woman With You," which elicited a deafening response, and his current Top 5 "Anything But Mine," which the crowd sang along to to the point he let them sing the final chorus on their own, it was a show spanning a career that's seen close to 20 million albums sold, three years of most attended country tours and an American Music Award for Favorite Artist over Usher, Outkast, Evanescence and Norah Jones. Perhaps, though, the night's most moving moment came when Chesney paused before "The Good Stuff" to dedicate the song about life's priorities in the face of losing a loved one to cancer to Chris LeDoux, who'd died from that very thing earlier in the day.

    "The people in Houston have been coming to see me almost as long as I've been playing shows," Chesney said backstage. "And I know how much they love their Rodeo and how much Chris passing on must mean to them. It was a small thing for me to do,  but you get to know people's hearts, their pain -- and you want to be there for them. I remember playing the little amphitheatre at 6 Flags; a buncha funky bars; that first Rodeo at the Astrodome. These people have been along for the ride, and there's just something about this rodeo that gets in your heart."

    "After all these are folks that've been cheering me along the whole way -- and I knew they'd cheer me along tonight! And sure enough, even with that gap between where we play and where they sit, you could feel the energy coming at us. It was so strong, I couldn't stay seated any more. It's why I did those last three or four songs kinda limping around the stage. I'll probably pay for it in the morning, but given that crowd, I can't think of any other way to do it."

    While Chesney's ankle is gaining strength every day, it was decided given this evening's strain to take a conservative approach for the long-term good of the entire Somewhere in the Sun Tour -- and postpone the second weekend. New Orleans show will be re-scheduled for April 26, Tupelo, Mississippi is May 3 and San Antonio, Texas is May 15. This -- again -- is preventative; no further re-schedulings are anticipated. As Chesney himself says, "I'm all revved up and ready to go. So, this just kills me."
 

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