Kenny Chesney rolls out his Sun City Carnival tour this Friday, and if anyone knows how to hit the road and do it right, it’s Kenny, who’s been making million-fan summers an annual party of good times and great music for the last seven years! Kenny tells us his fans are a constant source of inspiration, with their passionate sense of fun always reminding him what it’s all about when he steps on stage…and it was that same sense of fun that actually sparked the idea for the Sun City Carnival name! (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

Kenny has the luxury of being able to put on concerts the way he feels they should be done, and that’s one reason he sees touring not as something he has to do, but as something he gets to do, “‘Cause not everybody gets to do it like we get to do it. And I haven’t always gotten to do it like I get to do it. And it’s an amazing experience out there right now.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

If you see Kenny in concert, you can expect to meet Marly, Kenny’s stuffed blue marlin. Truth to tell, Kenny brings Marly out just for the fun of it and says that even if Marly is just hangin’ out off stage, he loves the idea of people walking by and wondering, “Why does Kenny have a stuffed blue marlin backstage with a sombrero on its head?” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)  

• Check out kennychesney.com for complete tour dates and info!
• Kenny is red-hot on the radio with his new smash, “Out Last Night,” from his upcoming Greatest Hits 2 (look for that “2” in roman numerals on the album!), out May 19th!

  Kenny Chesney says that his fans’ passion for a good time at his shows is something that inspires and motivates him every night. (:45)
“It’s unbelievable to see the passion that people have for havin’ a good time out there with us. It is unbeliev…I mean, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen people bring boats and use ’em as coolers. I’ve seen so many crazy things that it just, I tell ya, for me to go out there and do that, it reminds me of why we’re there. It reminds me that, no matter what’s goin’ on in your life, these people got a lot goin’ on in their life, too. And for a couple hours later on that night, we get to have a shared moment — and we’re gonna make that shared moment the best we can make it. And that’s the kind of mind-frame that puts me in. It allows me to realize the job that I gotta do at twenty minutes after nine o’clock.”

  Kenny Chesney got the inspiration for his new tour name from fans at one of his shows last year. (:29)
“A whole section of the parking lot — these people had it all roped off, and they had their own little city, and they called it the ‘Sun City Carnival.’ And the fans don’t even know it that I got it from them, you know, but I thought, ‘You know what? That’d be good for us, you know, that right there,’ so that’s one of the few times that I went out there and got somethin’, you know, from people out there havin’ a great time, and I saw it on a big sign, and I thought, you know, ‘That kind of describes everybody out here,’ and so I think it fit us perfect.”

  Kenny Chesney looks at touring as a privilege…and a very cool thing these days. (:30)
“We’re gettin’ ready to start, and to kick this thing off again, and I was tellin’ the band in rehearsals the other day, you know, somebody asked me in an interview, ‘Well, Kenny, you gotta go do this again…you gotta go tour again,’ you know, and I don’t really look at it as ‘you gotta.’ I look at it as that ‘we get to.’ You know? (laughs) ‘Cause not everybody gets to do it like we get to do it. And I haven’t always gotten to do it like I get to do it. And it’s an amazing experience out there right now.”

  Kenny Chesney talks about the “stuff” he brings on the road with him. (:46)
“I got a whole truck full of nothin’ but stuff, and a stuffed blue marlin we put on stage every night. Just because. You know, just as a talk point. You know, people will go, ‘Why does Kenny have a stuffed blue marlin on stage?’ There’s no rhyme or reason to it — it just makes me feel good. You know, I caught that thing off the north drop, out at the British Virgin Islands in 2003. And his name’s Marly. And Marly, we have big home for Marly…he’s in a road case, and every single day, if he’s not on stage, he’s backstage somewhere, just so somebody can look at it and go, ‘Why does Kenny have a stuffed blue marlin backstage with a sombrero on its head? (laughs)”