Kenny Chesney’s storytelling flair is woven into all of his songs.
But now the country music titan is telling a different story, the one about his life and how a kid from East Tennessee obsessed with sports evolved into a stadium-selling megastar behind smashes including “Beer in Mexico,” “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” and “I Go Back.”
Chesney’s book, “Heart Life Music” ( William Morrow/HarperCollins, Nov. 4), cowritten with music journalist Holly Gleason, also gives fans a peek into some of his experiences with idols and peers, such as George Jones and Jimmy Buffett.
“This book is full of surprises, full of moments I couldn’t have imagined, so living them with me is something I wanted to share,” Chesney told USA TODAY in an email. “But it’s also, I hope, an honest look at how one builds a dream; it’s the setbacks, the frustration, the small moves that add up and a reminder that hard work, fighting for great songs and not letting go is so critical.”
Kenny Chesney’s “Heart Life Music” includes stories of his adventures with George Jones and Jimmy Buffett. The book is out Nov. 4, 2025.
Chesney will visit with fans on a book tour from Nov. 1 to Nov. 16, with stops in cities including Boston, Chicago, Nashville and Miami.
In an exclusive excerpt from the book, Chesney shares the story behind “Boston,” from his 2005 album “Be As You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair).”
He told USA TODAY that he chose this segment to highlight because of its significance to his songwriting.
“It was such a perfect slice of that time when things were shifting and I was finding my authentic self. I’d had success, but it wasn’t connecting – and it’s when I started drawing on real life that the pieces fell together,” Chesney said. “It shows how songs literally rise up out of your life, that something people listen to in their car came out of moments that actually happened. To me, that’s where and how No Shoes Nation was built: common realities we all have.”
More: Kenny Chesney adds new Sphere Las Vegas shows in 2026. How to get tickets.
Kenny Chesney tells the story of his life in “Heart Life Music,” out Nov. 4, 2025.
‘Heart Life Music’ by Kenny Chesney exclusive excerpt
Starting in 1998, it seemed eight out of every ten girls I met in the Virgin Islands were from New England. Whether the bars, restaurants or on boats, those accents you can’t miss.
Having some local friends, I could hang out and run into someone I knew. I kept seeing this one bartender. She wore a Red Sox cap backwards, and you could she had these baby dreadlocks peeking out from under it. Didn’t matter when or where I saw her, she always had that Boston cap on.
You never know why something strikes you. Someone’s spark, a random detail catches your imagination.
I was in the middle of writing the “Be As You Are” album, though I didn’t know it yet.
I had these songs that didn’t have a place on my commercial records, but they were talking to each other. More authentically me than anything I’d ever done, I kept writing.
All that was whirling around my head one night when Mark Tamburino started playing this guitar part. It had a real groove, with a melody inside it that felt good. I was in my bunk thinking about that bartender, about a lot of stories I’d heard from my friends down there. That groove started circling around my head, the beats dropping just so…
“She wears a Red Sox cap… to hide her… baby… dreads…”
In a bunk on a bus rolling down the highway, “Boston” started to take shape.
I had no idea how far that song would travel. I only knew it was an authentic truth about that bartender, but so many other people in the islands.
Writing these songs, the people came with me.
Even when I wasn’t there, the islands colored my writing. Scheduled to play the University of Texas’ Frank Erwin Center in 2003, a freak ice storm cancelled our show. Trapped, because the roads were too icy to travel, Tim (Holt), Daryl (Hobby) and I were stuck.
“Somewhere in the Sun” fell out of that frozen – literally and metaphorically – moment in time. Trapped in a Holiday Inn parking lot, on our buses and these old hotel rooms, songs emerged. I started describing where we were: the bad room service, the TV with only “Andy Griffith” and “Barney,” because the cable was knocked out.
Whatever channel we could get, there was an ad for Cancun that kept airing. I could feel the melody as I writing it all down. Danny Tucker, my bus driver at the time, threw out the toast that became the bridge, so he was co-writer on the song, too.
A love letter to the people and places I was discovering, you can hear the pull of this other life. Some people thought I was recharging, but it was more opening up and letting go. There’s a quiet you need to hear your soul, something you can’t do when there’s a bunch of buses and trucks, people needing answers.
The answers I needed were found in hidden bars only the locals and sailors knew.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kenny Chesney shares exclusive excerpt from ‘Heart Life Music’
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com ’
