Chesney Wins 4th Consecutive ACM Entertainer of the Year
Five Acts Including Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Sammy Hagar, and Gary Allan Highlight Festival Like Show
(Glendale, Ariz. – May 19, 2008) He had sung his brand new “Better As A Memory,” duetted with birthday boy George Strait on their Academy of Country Music Vocal Event of the Year “Shiftwork” and won the Vocal Event Award for “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” with Tracy Lawrence and Tim McGraw, so it had already been a big night for Luttrell, Tennessee's Kenny Chesney, the three consecutive and reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year. And that's when Reba McEntire called out her good friend's name as Entertainer of the Year.
“It was an amazing feeling,” said the soft-spoken songwriter and superstar. “You just never know… or want to take it for granted. You work as hard as you can, and you hope people notice. But you can never do this for - or expect - awards.”
With an Internet component in place to take Entertainer of the Year voting from the country music industry - radio professionals, managers, label executives, concert promoters and artists themselves - to the fans, the parameters of the Academy's highest honor shifted radically. Having built his career playing to the fans, Chesney understands how powerful the artist/fan connection is… and also how sacred.
"Entertainer is about sacrifice, about the work, about what goes into creating the music, the tour…,” Chesney explained later that evening. “For me, I don't want the fans considering how hard we work - or what goes into making this happen. I want them to come out and party with us; I want them to forget their troubles for a couple hours, to have the best time they may have all year and to maybe hear some of my songs on the radio and think, 'Hey, that's my life…,' not boy, he sure does put a lot of effort into all of this. That makes their experience about me, not them, their friends, their lives and this music I've been making.”
Having played to over a million fans each of the past 6 summers - his 2007 Flip Flop Summer Tour not only brought country music to stadiums in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Philadelphia and Seattle last year, but it helped make Chesney the biggest ticket seller this century. His current Poets & Pirates Tour - sponsored by Corona Extra, who debuted a major tv spot starring the laid musician last night - will hit 15 football stadiums this year, including University of Phoenix Stadium on Saturday May 31st.
“I try to be the artist I'd want to see,” Chesney explained. “I know what rocked my world, heck, what rocks my world… and I just wanna be that for the fans who've been part of this ride. Their votes mean the world to me… because it means they are living these songs, these summers with us the way I used to with Springsteen, Van Halen, Jackson Browne, Keith Whitley. That's why I do what I do... because I know how powerful that experience can be.”
Chesney returns to the road with two nights in Grand Rapids, Michigan May 21-22 and then onto Cleveland, Ohio's Browns Stadium on May 24 “and you know I'm gonna thank'em every night we're out there over and over again.” Chesney’s tour heads West after Memorial Day and stops at University of Phoenix Stadium on Saturday May 31st.
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Contacts:
Scott Norton
University of Phoenix Stadium
(623) 433-7108
snorton@universityofphoenixstadium.com
