Kenny Chesney Shared Much of His HEART LIFE MUSIC w/ Lee Cowan on “CBS Sunday Morning”
Spanning his early years playing sports and trying to make it in Nashville, Cowan considers how those things anchored Chesney’s journey as the two explored his reasons for writing Heart Life Music. As Chesney explains, “When I said yes to ‘Sunday Morning,’ I know how iconic CBS’ news magazine is, and I wanted to make sure we delivered something that they would be proud of. This book tells the story of how a kid just dreaming to dream could swim against the stream, find himself, his heroes, face adversity, bounce back and keep trying to channel what it means to be alive and in love with living no matter what happens – and I wanted their story to measure up to their own standards.”
Filmed at Sphere Vegas, Hemingway’s House in Key West and at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, the intimate profile features cameos from GRAMMY-nominated duet partner Grace Potter and painter/musician/sailor David Wegmen. Capturing the at times elusive Chesney offstage, there’s a real sense of the friendships that drive the East Tennessean’s creative life.
Having shared an excerpt from Heart Life Music with CBS News, telling the story of how “You & Tequila” and Grace Potter came to be such a special chapter in his life, there are even more teasers to come. Look for profiles and features by noted novelist Silas House in Garden & Gun, critic Elias Light in Wall Street Journal, as well as USA Today, Knoxville News Sentinel, Miami Herald, PEOPLE, Salvation South and myriad SiriusXM stations, including Willie’s Roadhouse, Outlaw Country and an intimate conversation with Savannah Buffett on Radio Margaritaville.
“It’s amazing how much there is to say after all the hours we spent working on the book,” Chesney marvels. “But it’s a new way of looking at my music and my life; and I’m really excited to share it with people. For anybody with a dream they don’t quite know how to make happen, this is for you. Because I was that guy, and looking back, I can’t believe everything that’s happened, the friends, the heroes, the dead ends and breakthroughs. But really, it’s the courage to trust yourself – and use that to connect with people who need the music the same way I did.”
From football stadiums, the ETSU Bluegrass Band’s trip to Moscow, Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica, catching punts at NFL pre-season practices, jamming with Steve Miller or Joe Walsh, co-producing Willie Nelson and experiencing Key West through the eyes of his friend Jimmy Buffett, Heart Life Music is an all access pass to places most people can’t begin to imagine. For Kenny Chesney, it was all part of a life that set coming of age across America to music.
Known for commanding the largest stages and many of the best college bars nationwide, Heart Life Music ventures to places long gone, makes unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas, drifts across the waters of the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Beyond meeting and collaborating with heroes, forging transcendent friendships in the islands and beyond, Chesney’s introspective look at how living life inspired the songs and sound that defines No Shoes Nation, this book and these intimate book events offer the kind of conversations that emerge from spending a slow afternoon on the water with someone you want to know better.
About The Authors
One of contemporary American music's biggest names, Kenny Chesney was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year and was named Billboard’s No.1 Country Artist of the 21st Century. Selling out America’s major stadiums for two decades and playing to over a million fans every summer since 2002, Variety pronounced him “country music’s only true long-term stadium act.” The East Tennessee songwriter/superstar has over 105 platinum certifications, won the prestigious Entertainer of the Year eight times, as well as holding Billboard's record for the most Country Airplay No. 1s with 36 chart-topping songs that define coming of age in the flyover in the 21st Century. This year, the game-changing superstar became the first country artist to perform at the groundbreaking Sphere, taking No Shoes into a whole new dimension. Creating a space to work hard, play hard, love hard and come together in the spirit of celebrating all the moment offers. Heart Life Music is his first book.
Holly Gleason’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Library of Congress’ National Registry of Sound Recordings, among other outlets. She was the LA Press Club’s Entertainment Journalist of the Year and the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Association’s Independent Journalist of the Year. A former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame/Case Western Reserve Fellow, she’s the creator of Belmont Book Award-winning Woman Walk The Line, and co-authored Miranda Lambert’s New York Times best-seller Y’all Eat Yet as well as Prine on Prine: Interviews & Encounters.