Kenny Chesney hits number-one this week on Billboard‘s country chart with his latest smash, “Better As a Memory,” but there’s an irony to be found in the song — and it speaks to the sacrifices Kenny’s made over the years. The song sometimes reminds him of the old Mac Davis hit, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” about a woman drawn to man who respects her enough to come right out and admit he not any good at long-term relationships. “I am that guy in ‘Better As a Memory,'” Kenny says, admitting he’s said goodbye to women at times when he just knew deep-down in his heart that he actually would be better as a memory than as their man. “At that point in my life…I was in such a focused period,” he remembers. “I was a very zoned-in person on doing this.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)   

•  “Better as a Memory” is the fourth big hit — alongside “Shiftwork,” “Never Wanted Nothing More,” and “Don’t Blink” — from Kenny’s current album, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates.

  Kenny Chesney says his latest chart-topper, “Better as a Memory,” reminds him of himself during an earlier time in his life and career. (:37)
“I am that guy in ‘Better as a Memory.’ I think this is a letter that I’ve written three or four times in my life to people, because at that point in my life when I wrote those letters, I was in such a focused period. I was in a very zoned-in…I was a very zoned-in person on doing this out here, and you know, like the old Mac Davis song, ‘Baby Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me,’ you know, this is kind of that song, but in a more…in a little bit deeper of a way, you know, because when I wrote those letters, I was better as a memory than as their man, I promise you.”