About Kenny Chesney
Kenneth Arnold Chesney is an American country singer. He has recorded more than 20 albums that include more than 40 Top 10 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, 32 of which have reached number one. Many of these also have charted within the Top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making him one of the most successful crossover country artists. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
Chesney has received twelve Country Music Association Awards, including the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year honor four times, and eleven Academy of Country Music Awards, including four consecutive Academy of Country Music Award for Entertainer of the Year from 2005 to 2008, as well as six Grammy Award nominations. He is one of the most popular touring acts in country music, regularly selling out the venues in which he performs.
Chesney was born on March 26, 1968, in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, at St. Mary's Medical Center and was raised in Luttrell. He is of English and Irish descent. He is the son of David Chesney, a former elementary school teacher, and Karen Chandler, a hair stylist in the Knoxville area. Chesney has one sibling, a younger sister named Jennifer Chandler. In 1986, Chesney graduated from Gibbs High School, where he played baseball and football. He received his first guitar for Christmas and began teaching himself how to play it.
Chesney studied advertising at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, where he was a member of the ETSU Bluegrass Program and the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and graduated in 1990. In 1989, he recorded a self-released demo album, Good Old Boy At Heart at the Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Virginia. He sold 1,000 copies while performing at the local clubs in Johnson City and used the money from album sales to help himself buy a new guitar.
After graduation from East Tennessee State in 1990, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he performed at several local clubs. In March 1991, he passed an audition to sing at The Bluebird Cafe. He became the resident performer at The Turf, a honky tonk bar in the city's historic district.
In 1992, the head of writer relations at BMI, Clay Bradley, recommended Chesney to his friend, Troy Tomlinson, at Opryland Music Group. Chesney performed five songs during his audition for Tomlinson. Chesney left the audition with a songwriter's contract. A year later, an appearance at a songwriter's showcase led to a contract with Capricorn Records, which had recently started a country division.
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