Last updated on October 7th, 2025 at 12:49 pm
Kenneth Chesney is an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and record producer. He became popular when he released his debut album “In My Wildest Dreams” in 1992.
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 hair stylist in the Knoxville area. Chesney has one sibling, a younger sister named Jennifer Chandler.
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.
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.
Full Name: Kenneth Arnold Chesney
Date of Birth: March 26, 1968
Place of Birth: Maynardville, Tennessee, U.S.
Age: 57 years old (as at 2025)
Nationality: American
Genre: Country rock, Gulf and Western, neotraditional country
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Record label: Capricorn, BNA, Columbia, Warner Nashville, Blue Chair
Instruments: Vocals, guitar
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.
Chesney then signed with BNA Records and released his second studio album, All I Need to Know, in 1995.
The album produced three singles. “Fall in Love” and the title track both reached the Top 10, while “Grandpa Told Me So” peaked at number 23.
Chesney’s third studio album and his second major-label one, entitled Me and You, was released in 1996.
Chesney released his fifteenth studio album, Life on a Rock, on April 30, 2013. The first single from the album, “Pirate Flag”, was released to iTunes on February 5, 2013, and peaked at number 3 on the Country Airplay chart in May 2013. Pirate Flag peaked at number 7 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, May 25, 2013.
In June 2014, Chesney released the new song “American Kids” to the radio. This song served as the lead-off single from his sixteenth studio album, The Big Revival, which was released on September 23, 2014.
The album’s second single, “Til It’s Gone”, was released in mid-October. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart the week of January 31, 2015.
The third single, “Wild Child”, which is a duet with Grace Potter, was released two days later. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart the week of June 27, 2015.
The album’s fourth single, “Save It for a Rainy Day”, was released to country radio on June 29, 2015. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart the week of October 9, 2015.
On March 7, 2016, Chesney announced that he was in the studio working on new music. The lead single to the album is titled “Noise”, which was released to country radio on March 24, 2016.
The album, Cosmic Hallelujah, was released on October 28. The second song in the album, “Setting the World on Fire”, featuring singer P!NK, was released to country radio on July 28, 2016.
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:
Chesney married actress Renée Zellweger in a ceremony on the island of St. John in 2005,
They 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 divorce.
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
- Born
Singles:
“Whatever It Takes”
“The Tin Man”
“Somebody’s Callin'”
“Fall in Love”
“All I Need to Know”
“Grandpa Told Me So”
“Back in My Arms Again”
“Me and You”
“When I Close My Eyes”
“She’s Got It All”
“A Chance”
“That’s Why I’m Here”
“I Will Stand”
“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”
“Here and Now”
“Happy Does”
“Knowing You”
“Everyone She Knows”
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