For Immediate Release
12 Sept. 2004
For More Information
Holly Gleason for Joe's Garage
Wes Vause for BNA Nashville
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SRO Guitars, Tiki Bars Tour Wraps Up In Nashville
Kenny Chesney Gets Platinum Ticket for 1.2 Million Fans Played To
Triple Platinum Sun Goes Down + A Whole Lotta Love --

   Nashville, TN: He'd smashed Dave Matthews attendance record the
night before and they'd had to hold the show for 30 minutes to get the 21,761
people off the St. Louis freeways and into the parking lot, but Kenny Chesney
was hardly ready for the traffic jam onstage at Nashville's Gaylord
Entertainment Center. The 6-time Country Music Association Awards nominee'd just
finished "I Go Back," when he looked up to see his his business people moving towards
him with an apology.

   "Kenny, we know we told you that you were all done for the year,"
said legendary manager Dale Morris, "but you KNOW how us managers
are. There are a couple things you've gotta do before you shut it down."

   "We've got the chairman of your record company Joe Galante and your
tour promoter Louis Messina to talk to you about it" co-manager Clint
High picked up without missing a beat.

  The two top shelf executives emerged from the wings -- one carrying
a platinum ticket, the other joined by RCA Label Group General Manager
Butch Waugh and a giant plaque commemorating sales of over three million copies for
When The Sun Goes Down. It's not something the fans are ever part of, so
when the sold out four times over crowd realized, the roars was so loud, a
clearly emotional Chesney's response couldn't be heard in the house.

   After a few moments, Chesney waved his arms, flashed his million
dollar smile and proclaimed, "Well, I guess now we've got a lot more things to
party about" and kicked into his down home definition of who he (and his
crowd) is: "Back Where I Come From." Though the man whose spent 12 weeks at #1 on
the Country Singles chart and debuted at #1 on Billboard's all-genre Top
200 Albums chart with sales of over 550,000 should be getting used to these sorts
of interruptions and eruptions!

   At mid-year Chesney was the #3 total ticket-seller behind Prince
and Britney Spears -- and according to tour promoter Louis Messina, who
presented the ticket stub for 1,197,992 tickets sold on a much shorter tour, "You are
now officially the biggest ticket seller in any kind of music." And that
means a gross in excess of $64 million that includes setting a new attendance
record at the famed Houston Rodeo & Livestock Show -- of over 70,000, the highest
grossing country show in the history of the Tacoma Dome, having a
second show sell-out faster than a flashfire in Raleigh, North Carolina (the only
market that demand could be accommodated) and no Neyland Stadium to factor in.

   "They tell me it took us 75 shows to hit this platinum ticket last
year," says the aw-struck songwriter from Luttrell, Tennessee, "and that this
year, we hit it in 64 shows. You know, all I see are the faces. The fans who
make what we do mean so damn much; and I don't think in terms of counts or
turnstiles. And in the middle of the show, I didn't think about it either, but now,
well, it's hard to get your head around."

   There are plenty more numbers for the soft-spoken superstar to get
his head around. Besides having total album sales in excess of 16.8 million
total, When The Sun Goes Down is not only the best-selling country album of
2004, but it sits at #3 for total sales in any genre behind Usher and Norah
Jones. And while the tour is over for this year, his record sales are hardly
slowing down.

   Look for Chesney at the 2004 Country Music Association Awards -
where he's up for Entertainer, Male, Album of the Year for When The Sun Goes
Down (also producer of the year) and a pair of Vocal Event nods -- and anywhere
there's a parasol drink with some Cruzan Rum in it. It's been a big year, and
only getting bigger.
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