Kenny Chesney Talks New ‘Heart Life Music’ Book & More with Rich

Kenny Chesney walked into The Rich Eisen Show studio holding his new New York Times number one bestseller, Heart Life Music, and a story for nearly every page. The country star has done Rich's program from Super Bowls before, but this was the first time he sat across the desk in person, and the room felt it.

The book, Chesney explained, was born out of stillness. After three decades on the road, he never stopped long enough to look back. Holly Gleason recorded over a hundred hours of interviews with him to pull the stories out. He called the process therapy, and said he wanted to write down the blueprint of how he got into the music business because that blueprint is disappearing.

What surprised Rich was how much of the book is about sports. Chesney's father coached. He played high school football undersized and learned the lessons that still drive his touring operation today. Hundreds of people on the road, he said, and if everyone does not buy into the same standard, the show is not great. Same as football.

The heart of the conversation belonged to Sean Payton. Chesney first met Payton when he was Jim Fassel's quarterbacks coach with the Giants. Quarterback Kerry Collins invited Chesney to Giants training camp in Albany, and Chesney returned the favor by inviting the team to his show. The next morning Payton called Fassel to report that 16 players had missed curfew. They paid the fine. A friendship started.

Years later, Payton was at Chesney's show in Lafayette, Louisiana the day he signed to coach the Saints. Chesney bought a suite at the Superdome to share with his father, and watched Payton's New Orleans run from inside the building. He calls the night the Saints beat the Vikings in the NFC Championship the loudest thing he has ever heard, indoor or out, and said you could feel the stadium shake.

The Super Bowl that followed produced the kind of story Chesney's book is built for. Payton asked him to play the after-party. Chesney refused payment and asked only for eight tickets to the game for his band. Game day, Payton texted him to look out his left window. Chesney's tour bus pulled in behind the Saints team buses with police escort and rolled into the Super Bowl. He did not take the stage to perform until 1:30 in the morning.

Rich and Chesney also traded notes on Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Chesney has played Gillette Stadium since 2006 and now closes every tour with two nights in Foxborough. He sat with the Krafts the night New England came back from twenty-eight to three against Atlanta. Rich was sitting next to them at halftime and said it was a tough room.

Chesney told the story behind Beer in Mexico, written at thirty-six after playing Sammy Hagar's birthday party in Cabo. Everyone treats it as a party song. He says it is autobiographical, written the night he realized he did not have to figure everything out yet.

He is back at the Sphere in Las Vegas for eleven shows in June and July, the first country act to play the room. His new single Carry On drops May 8.