Kenny Chesney

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Kenny Chesney
Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Kenneth Arnold Chesney</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">March 26, 1968</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Knoxville, Tennessee</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Country</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1993 - Present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">BNA Records, BMG</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">http://www.kennychesney.com</td></tr>

Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968, in Knoxville, Tennessee), raised in Luttrell, Tennessee is an American country music singer. He became known for his songs "No shoes, no shirt, no problems" and "When the sun goes down".

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Discography
- 4.1 Albums
- 4.2 Chart singles
5 Awards
6 See also
7 Notes
8 Reference
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Chesney attended Gibbs High School in Corryton (Knox County), Tennessee, and in 1990, graduated with a marketing degree from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee.<ref>[1]</ref> While at ETSU Chesney joined the Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity, and is a notable alumnus.

Chesney started his music career playing tunes for tips at local places like Chuckie's Trading Post and Quarterback's, and recorded his first album in 1991 at Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia. A thousand copies were made, and Chesney sold them at his busking gigs. The album sales helped in buying a new Martin guitar. After he graduated from college, he headed to Nashville, where he performed everywhere he could, including busking on Music Row at a place called HounDogs.<ref>http://www.countrymusicplanet.com/houndogs/hounddogs2.htm</ref> He also did regular gigs at a joint called Turf. After making the rounds of the music publishers in Nashville, Chesney got a contract in 1992 with BMI.

[edit] Career

His first major hit was "Fall in Love," which reached the Country Top 10 in 1995. The follow-up, "All I Need to Know," also reached the Top 10, but ensuing follow-ups were not so successful.

In 1996, he scored the top-five hit, "Me and You," and returned again with "When I Close My Eyes" in early 1997. He hit No. 1 for the first time with "She's Got It All" in August 1997; the song spent three weeks atop Billboard magazine's country singles chart.

Other No. 1 hits included "How Forever Feels" (six weeks in 1999); "The Good Stuff" (seven weeks in 2002); "There Goes My Life" (seven weeks in 2003); and "When the Sun Goes Down" (a duet with Uncle Kracker in 2004). Notable No. 2s include "That's Why I'm Here" (1998), "Young" (2002), "Big Star" (2003), "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem" (2003) and "The Woman With You" (2004).

While some of Chesney's music shows the obvious influence of John Mellencamp and Jimmy Buffett (a point critics are quick to note)^{[citation needed]},he often performs several traditional country songs at his shows (particularly, music from George Jones). He won the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year honor in 2004 and 2006.

In January 2005, Chesney released the album Be As You Are: Songs from an Old Blue Chair, supporting the album with his Somewhere in the Sun Tour and in November 2005, Chesney released his second album of that year, The Road and The Radio.

In February 2006, Chesney was presented with a plaque commemorating his sales of 25 million albums. On May 23, 2006, Chesney was honored at the Academy of Country Music Awards as Entertainer of the Year. <ref name=MSNBC>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12940538/</ref>

[edit] Personal life

On May 9, 2005, Chesney married Renée Zellweger on the resort island St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The pair met in January 2005 at a tsunami relief benefit. Chesney had previously commented that Zellweger was his favorite actress and had written a song, "You Had Me From Hello", stealing a line from her movie Jerry Maguire. On September 15, 2005, after only four months of marriage, they announced their plans for an annulment. Zellweger cited "fraud" as the reason in the related legal papers. On September 16, 2005, the pair issued a joint statement saying, "the miscommunication of the objective of their marriage at the start is the only reason for this annulment. Renee and Kenny value and respect each other and are saddened that their different objectives prevent the success of this marriage".<ref name="PEOPLE">Renee Speaks Out About Kenny Their annulment was officially finalized in late December 2005, putting an end to speculation that the couple was planning to reconcile.

Terry Morrow, columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinal, reports that Chesney is currently dating Colombian-born model Vane Millon who appeared in two of his videos, "When the Sun Goes Down" and "You Save Me".<ref name="KNOXNEWS">Knoxville News Sentinal</ref>

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Year	Album	US albums	US country albums
1994	In My Wildest Dreams	-	-
1995	All I Need to Know	-	39	Gold
1997	Me and You	78	9	Gold
1997	I Will Stand	95	10	Platinum
1999	Everywhere We Go	51	5	2xPlatinum
2000	Greatest Hits	13	1	4xPlatinum
2002	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems	1	1	4xPlatinum
2003	All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan	42	4	Platinum
2004	When the Sun Goes Down	1	1	4xPlatinum
2005	Be As You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair)	1	1	Platinum
2005	The Road and the Radio	1	1	2xPlatinum
2006	Live Those Songs Again...Live	4	1

In 2006 Kenny received a plaque for record sales of 25 million.

[edit] Chart singles

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US country	Album
1994	"Whatever It Takes"	-	59	In My Wildest Dreams
1995	"Fall In Love"	-	6	All I Need To Know
1995	"All I Need To Know"	-	8	All I Need To Know
1996	"Grandpa Told Me So"	-	23	All I Need To Know
	"Back In My Arms Again"	-	41	Me and You
	"Me and You"	-	2	Me and You
1997	"When I Close My Eyes"	-	2	Me and You
1997	"She's Got It All"	-	1	I Will Stand
1998	"A Chance"	-	11	I Will Stand
	"That's Why I'm Here"	79	2	I Will Stand
	"Touchdown Tennessee"	-	64	limited-edition single
1999	"Team Of Destiny"	-	72	original A-side of "How Forever Feels"
	"How Forever Feels"	27	1	Everywhere We Go
	"You Had Me From Hello"	34	1	Everywhere We Go
	"She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy"	66	11	Everywhere We Go
	"What I Need To Do"	56	8	Everywhere We Go
	"I Lost It"	34	3	Greatest Hits
2001	"Don't Happen Twice"	26	1	Greatest Hits
2001	"The Tin Man"	-	19	All I Need To Know
2002	"Young"	35	2	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
	"Live Those Songs"	-	60	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
	"The Good Stuff"	22	1	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
2003	"A Lot Of Things Different"	55	6	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
	"Big Star"	28	2	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
	"No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem"	28	2	No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
	"There Goes My Life"	29	1	When the Sun Goes Down
	"Silent Night" (Kenny Chesney featuring The Grisgby Twins)	-	57	All I Want For Christmas Is a Real Good Tan
	"Thank God For Kids	-	60	All I Want For Christmas Is a Real Good Tan
2004	"When the Sun Goes Down" (with Uncle Kracker)	26	1	When the Sun Goes Down
	"Hey Good Lookin'" (Jimmy Buffett with Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith and George Strait)	63	8	Licence To Chill (Jimmy Buffett album)
	"I Go Back"	32	2	When the Sun Goes Down
	"The Woman With You"	33	2	When the Sun Goes Down
2005	"Guitars and Tiki Bars"	-	53	Be as You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair)
	"Anything But Mine"	48	1	When the Sun Goes Down
	"Keg In the Closet"	64	6	When the Sun Goes Down
	"Who You'd Be Today"	37	2	The Road and the Radio
	"Living In Fast Forward"	48	1	The Road and the Radio
	"The Road and the Radio" ²	-	59	The Road and the Radio
	"Beer In Mexico" ²	-	60	The Road and the Radio
2006	"Summertime" ¹	34	1	The Road and the Radio
2006	"You Save Me" ¹	81	3	The Road and the Radio