Kenneth Chesney is an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and record producer. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, 32 of which have reached number one.
Chesney was born on March 26, 1968, in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, at St. Mary’s Medical Center and was raised in Luttrell. He is of English and Irish descent. He is the son of David Chesney, a former elementary school teacher, and Karen Chandler, a hairstylist in the Knoxville area. Chesney has one sibling, a younger sister named Jennifer Chandler.
In 1986, Chesney graduated from Gibbs High School, where he played baseball and football. He received his first guitar, “The Terminor”, for Christmas and began teaching himself how to play it.
Chesney studied advertising at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, where he was a member of the ETSU Bluegrass Program and the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and graduated in 1990.
In 1989, he recorded a self-released demo album at the Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia. He sold 1,000 copies while performing at the local clubs in Johnson City and used the money from album sales to help himself buy a new guitar.
He became the resident performer at The Turf, a honky tonk bar in the city’s historic district.
Full Name: Kenneth Arnold Chesney
Date of Birth: March 26, 1968
Age: 53
Place of Birth: Maynardville, Tennessee, U.S.
Nationality: American
Genre: Country, country rock, Gulf and Western
Instruments: Vocals, guitar
Profession: Singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, musician
Record Label:
Capricorn, BNAColumbia, Warner Nashville, Blue Chair
Net-worth: $180 Million
Career:
Chesney’s debut album, In My Wildest Dreams, was released on the independent Capricorn Records label in April 1994.
The album’s first two singles, “Whatever It Takes” and “The Tin Man”, both reached the lower regions of the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
The album sold approximately 10,000 copies before Capricorn Records closed its country music division in Nashville later that year and moved to Atlanta.
hesney’s third studio album and his second major-label one, entitled Me and You, was released in 1996.
In January 2005, Chesney released the album Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair), supporting it with his Somewhere in the Sun Tour. Be as You Are is composed mostly of ballads.
The album qualified for RIAA Platinum and entered the top of both mainstream country and pop music.
On July 24, 2008, Chesney announced that he would be releasing a new single from an upcoming album entitled Lucky Old Sun. The song was titled “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven”, and for the chart week of August 16, 2008, it debuted at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
The album was released on October 14, 2008. “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” became a No. 1 hit.
In January 2018, it was announced that Chesney had ended his contract with Sony Music Nashville and signed to Warner Bros. Records Nashville. Chesney released his first album with Warner, entitled Songs for the Saints, on July 27, 2018.
In March 2020, he announced a new album called Here and Now, which features the title track and “Tip of My Tongue”, a leadoff single that was released in mid-2019.
The album debuted at number one and became Chesney’s 16th top 10 album on the US Billboard 200, with 233,000 units.
Personal Life:
On May 9, 2005, Chesney married actress Renée Zellweger in a ceremony on the island of St. John. They had met in January at a tsunami relief event. On September 15 of that same year, after only four months of marriage, they announced their plans for an annulment.
Since 2012, Chesney has dated Mary Nolan.
Songs:
Studio Albums:
In My Wildest Dreams
All I Need to Know
Me and You
I Will Stand
Everywhere We Go
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan
When the Sun Goes Down
Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair)
The Road and the Radio
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
Lucky Old Sun
Hemingway’s Whiskey
Welcome to the Fishbowl
Life on a Rock
The Big Revival
Cosmic Hallelujah
Songs for the Saints
Here and Now
Awards:
Academy of Country Music Award for Entertainer of the Year
American Music Award for Artist of the Year
CMA Entertainer of the Year
