After taking a year off touring, Kenny Chesney hit the road in a big way with his 2015 Big Revival Tour, which closed out the year having played to more than 1.3 million fans and made Kenny the only country artist among Billboard’s Top 5 Touring Acts of 2015. And as Kenny looks ahead to his new Spread the Love Tour, he recently talked about this past year and what fans can expect on his 2016 tour.

– “What people don’t see about these tours is when they’re coming into the stadium that last month, we’re already thinking about how we’re going to rock the fans, really take them new places next year. Between the lights, the entrance, the stage, the videos, I work with one of the most incredible teams to find ways to really give the No Shoes Nation the kind of night that really makes their summer what they want it to be.”

– “This year, the No Shoes Nation was at a whole new level in terms of the energy they threw at us. Every night when the screen would drop, when they’d hear the music, they almost knocked us back a few feet. That’s powerful – and we found ourselves talking about it after the shows a lot of nights.”

– “It spoke pretty loudly to me as we were looking at renderings, thinking about the tricks. Because in the end, it was the music and the moment they were responding to – not the flying, not the lasers, not the videos, but the songs. So when we got to decision-making we all realized: what the No Shoes Nation really wants is… the music.”

– “So this year, we are as lean as we’ve ever been! The stage is clean. Nobody’s flying. The sound is building on last year’s incredible system – and the lights are going to be really focused on making the music stand out. I want as little between me and the fans as possible, and I think we’ve managed to achieve that in a really good way. It’s going to be more intense than ever, but it’s going to be about the songs, the band, the moment and the energy we give each other. This is going to be a year to remember… and we’ve not played the first note.”