For Immediate Release

6 August  2002

For More Information

Holly Gleason for Joe's Garage

Wes Vause for BNA Nashville

Kenny Chesney's Got "The Good Stuff"

4 Week #1 Awarded -- Plus A Platinum Ticket for Over 1 Million Fans Played To

 

    Nashville, TN: For the assembled friends, publishers, songwriters and

other creative people assembled at ASCAP, the American Society of Composers,

Authors and Publishers, it was more than the opportunity to recognize Kenny

Chesney's four-week and counting #1 smash "The Good Stuff." For artist and

writers Craig Wiseman and Jim Collins, it was about recognizing both an

amazing song -- and an amazing inspiration, Rusty Martin who's commitment to

his wife's battle with cancer and subsequent loss.

 

    "There's something about songs that come out of real life," says Chesney.

"You take two of Nashville's very best writers and you give them inspiration

like that -- and you're bound to both break people's hearts and inspire them

to live their lives and loves as fully as possible. I know when I heard 'The

Good Stuff,' it certainly made me think about my life and values a lot

differently."

 

    "The Good Stuff" appears poised to spend several more weeks at #1 on

Billboard's Country Singles chart. Focusing on the small moments in lives

that make it all worthwhile, the "priority adjuster" also celebrates the

depths of love's ability to help us get through the tough times.

 

    Midway through the presentation, IMS' Dale Morris and Clint Higham, along

with tour producer Louis Messina, joined Chesney onstage. They'd come with a

presentation of their own - a platinum ticket to commemorate over 1,000,000

tickets sold on the No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems tour, the Luttrell,

Tennessean's first as a headliner. Grossing $17,000,000, it stands as the

only country tour on Billboard's Top Tours of this year -- and is currently

country's highest grossing tour.

   

    "When I saw Louis and Dale and Clint coming towards me, I couldn't figure

out what they were doing," Chesney says with that shy smile. "And when they

held out that giant silver ticket and it sunk in, I almost fell over. Every

night, you go out onstage and you want those kids, those people who were, no,

are just like me, in terms of being a fan and loving the music so much, to go

home entertained…You give it up for the fabs; you rock hard; but you don't

think in terms of how many people served like you do when you drive-through

at McDonalds.

 

    "They're there. You're there. Everybody's rocking. Beyond that, I never

have it much thought."

 

    For Chesney, whose No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems debuted at #1 Billboard

 Top 200 and spent three months atop #1 Billboard's Country Album chart, it's

been an amazing year. The deeply personal work -- co-produced with Buddy

Cannon and Norro Wilson -- sold 75,000 pieces its first day alone and

surpassed platinum status on second day reorders alone. Then the heavy metal

heart-throb bagged the fan-voted CMT Flameworthy Award for both Male Artist

and the big Video of the Year for "Young."

 

    Hailed as "Country's Hottest Bachelor" by Country Weekly and "Hunky Tonk"

by People, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems marks a slight maturation for the

emergent singer/songwriter with back-to-back double platinum releases for his

Greatest Hits and Everywhere We Go. Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly,

Blender, The Los Angeles Times, Music Connection and The Boston Globe have

all cited his ability to distill life for his fans -- with The Washington Post

 offering, "More than just a record of hitherto unseen modesty and maturity,

NSNSNP  is one of the better coming of age records to come from Nashville's

Music Row in years."

 

    Now that -- plus over a million tickets and all this is music --

certainly is some good stuff.

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