Country music star Eric Church sent this statement to Knox News in honor of Kenny Chesney’s induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the release of his book “Heart Life Music.”
My first encounter with the Pirate was in Clemson, South Carolina, at the George Strait music festival. Seven/eight acts. Massive stadium. Except I wasn’t on the bill. I was in the crowd.
Kenny was still on the climb, and he played a couple acts in front of “King George.” I got there under a hot Carolina sun and settled into my seat with some buddies, maybe a Tiger Woods 7 iron from the stage. Grabbed a beer, maybe two, maintaining proper pacing, for an expected peak about the time the King took the spotlight.
The set changeover before Kenny took the stage, the room changed. The atmosphere got tighter and yet lighter. I watched the crowd stir, gather, like that moment you feel before your team kicks off in a big game.
The anticipation coiled like a viper ready to strike. I watched people group up, as if they knew something we didn’t: ”Here comes my guy, he represents me and my tribe.”
I saw flags. Beach balls. The whole place started to break every alcohol pacing boundary I had naively set for us. I looked at my buddy, and said, “What’s happening? Who is this next guy?”
When Kenny got to his latest single, “How Forever Feels,” I had my answer. He was the best thing I saw that day, and what was happening would change music history for us all. Like a musical crystal ball, I had seen the future.
Little did I know then, I would share that future with him.
It’s never one big thing that shows an artist their path. It’s a series of little things. Like surgical air strikes on your artistic compass. BOOM! Something shifts.
I remember the night before my second Chesney show: Tampa, Florida, the Buccaneers stadium. Only now, I was the one opening the big show as the up-and-comer.
When I arrived, they took me to say hello. I found Kenny not on his bus, or relaxing in the sun, but working on a video montage that showed his fans at concerts throughout the years. Their moment. On a giant screen behind him to his music.
He was laser focused to make it about them. Meticulously working on how that video would shine the spotlight on their life. Their music. Their struggles. Their triumphs. Frozen in time, in Kodachrome black and white, where 60,000 people could see ’em. Hands in the air, arms around each others’ shoulders. That was another little moment for me that would change my trajectory.
We’ve all seen the big star on the big stage in our lives, but the bigger opportunity is where you can make it about the smallest among us. Kenny never lost sight of that. Because, simply, he is one of them.
Like all of us, he’s a dreamer. But he understands all too well that life is made up of more broken dreams than built ones. It’s the unbreakable in our shared human spirit that keeps us chasing, striving, grinding for that perfect moment when, with 60,000 people, we share all that emotion together.
Hands in the air. Smiles on our face. Putting our problems on ice long enough that our dreams can thaw.
I walked onstage that night like Kenny had so many years before. I was cocky. I was brash. I was gonna change the atmosphere in front of me like Kenny had in Clemson, South Carolina. Only I didn’t have to. These were my people. This was an umbrella I belonged under. A tribe I belonged to. A flag I’m still proud to fly.
Eric Church, a Nashville resident, has been nominated and honored by the Academy of Country Music, American Music Awards, Country Music Association, CMT and the Grammys.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Eric Church honors his friend Kenny Chesney: ‘He’s a dreamer’
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