Country music star Kenny Chesney has roots all over East Tennessee, and two universities that have played important roles in his life will be duking it out on the gridiron Sept. 6.
The 57-year-old Knoxville native has risen to country music stardom over the course of his more-than-30-year career, releasing 20 studio albums and going platinum multiple times. He’ll add a new accomplishment to his resume later this year when he is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
This weekend, one of his favorite teams, the Tennessee Volunteers, will host his alma mater, the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers, at Neyland Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. game Sept. 6.
Kenny Chesney’s roots are in Knoxville, East Tennessee
Born in 1968, Chesney grew up just outside of Knoxville in Luttrell. He graduated from Gibbs High School, the same stomping grounds as fellow country superstar Morgan Wallen.
Chesney attended ETSU to study advertising, graduating from the school in Johnson City in 1990. He paid a visit in 2022 to deliver an honorary doctorate to Jack Tottle, who founded the university’s music studies program. Tottle also taught Chesney about music during an instrumental period in the country star’s life as he began to take music more seriously. During the 2022 event, Chesney was presented with his own honorary doctorate.
But Chesney’s love for the Vols is profound: kissing Smokey the Dog as a guest picker for College Gameday, maintaining a friendship with Vols quarterback legend Peyton Manning and taking the Vols to Las Vegas by showing a video of the team running through the Power T in Neyland Stadium during his residency in the Sphere (when he also welcomed Knoxville native Kelsea Ballerini onto the stage).
He’s also one of the select few musicians to have performed a concert inside Neyland Stadium, another title he shares with Morgan Wallen.
Chesney’s loyalty to the Volunteers was called into question more than a decade ago when he showed the Florida Gators some love during a concert in Gainesville, and in another instance when he posed for a photo with the team’s cheerleaders. But he has reiterated his support for the Vols since then.
Kenny Chesney’s roots on display in Neyland Stadium
Although his loyalty is for the Vols, the eight-time Entertainer of the Year shares the love across East Tennessee, performing in Bristol before the Vols faced the Virginia Tech Hokies in 2016 and joining Ballerini on stage at Thompson-Boling Arena in 2023.
With help from his “No Shoes Nation” legion of fans, Chesney has dominated the country music charts over the years. But his love for music and his legendary career began right here in the region and was cultivated at ETSU.
“I was a kid in East Tennessee and I went with my mom and my stepfather to a field about 10 miles from my house to see this group, Alabama, that was gonna play,” he said, The Tennessean reported in March. “I went to that show and something happened to me that night. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path and if you’d have told that kid that night on a hot summer night in East Tennessee that this was going to happen, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.”
Regardless, Chesney’s roots will be on full display in Neyland Stadium.
Kenny Chesney kisses UT football mascot “Smokey” during an ESPN College GameDay show on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012. Chesney appeared as the guest game picker of the week.
Keenan Thomas reports on higher education for the Knox News business growth and development team. You can reach him by email at [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kenny Chesney’s fave football teams, Tennessee and ETSU, to face off
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