When Kenny Chesney said he wasn’t staging a major tour, the 4-consecutive ....Academy.. of ..Country Music.... and 4-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year was clear that he intended to get out on the road and play for his fans… And true to his word, a few major outdoor festival announcements have been made. Now the high-intensity performer who is hard at work on “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D,” the concert film which captures 5 of his stadium-sized shows and arrives in theatres April 21, announces a far more intimate way to hear the songs that have become the soundtrack to summer for this century.

            The shows – May 14 & 15 and July 2 & 3 – bring Chesney, the face of Corona Extra, back to the Joint at the Hard Rock Las Vegas, where he was part of the opening weekend which also included Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi, and the Killers. For the man who’s used to rocking close to 60,000 people, the chance to be in a venue where the farthest seat from the stage is merely 155 feet away appeals to the man known for his unannounced Keg in the Closet tours of college and beach bars.

            “Obviously we like to play,” Chesney laughs about his band. “The beauty of the Joint is that not only is it a great rock and roll room, but they’ll let us get up there and play… and play… and play. We have so much fun, because we can throw in all kinds of stuff we don’t get to play in our regular show, and the audiences are diverse enough that no matter what we throw at them, they know the songs!”

            In April 2009, Chesney not only played a whole lot of his songs and covers from U2 to Steve Miller, Van Halen to Tom Petty, he also brought his very talented road crew onstage to share in the jamming during his over 3 hour set. No word on what will happen this year, but no doubt Chesney will take his 4 Joint shows well into the Keg in the Closet zone.

            “That’s what’s so great about a gig where the capacity is under 4000, especially at the Joint,” Chesney enthuses. “It’s the best of both worlds: you get the energy of a club, but it’s still enough of a stage that there’s room to run around and have fun! Because when we do these smaller, less structured shows, we like to let loose without tripping over each other or getting tangled in someone’s chord.

            Chesney, who was recently cited by The Los Angeles Times as the 2nd biggest artist of the decade for record sales, touring impact and hit singles, released two albums in 2009: the intimate Lucky Old Sun, which yielded the #1s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and “Down the Road,” a duet with the song’s writer Mac McAnally, and Greatest Hits II, featuring “Out Last Night” and “I’m Alive,” a duet with Dave Matthews – and is preparing to his next studio release.

Greatest Hits II available now!

With a Studio Album Slated for Fall, Chesney Finds A Song for His Life

Part of the reason for taking a year between major concert tours was so that Kenny Chesney could take his time and really enjoy the process of making his next endeavor - and part of the reason was the amount of work that he knew was going to go into the editing, mixing and support of “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D,” released nationally April 21 by Sony Picture Entertainment's The Hot Ticket division.

     But the further the 4-consecutive Academy of  Country Music and 4-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year got into the stadium-capturing movie, the more he felt like it needed a song that captured everything that went into his life leading to playing in NFL stadiums across the nation. He explains, “I wanted a piece of music that encapsulated the things in my life that brought me here that showed the things that had brought me there.”

     Chesney found such a song in “Ain't Back Yet,” a driving song about the things that push us from Craig Wiseman and Chris Tompkins, which goes to country radio on Feb 8. With the opening lines, “I heard a song 'bout a ramblin' man, bought a guitar and I started a band/ I got a gig at the local Am Vet, I was gone and I ain't back yet,” the song celebrates fast cars, first love, chasing dreams and knowing sometimes the surface is never enough when there's something larger on the horizon.

     “That song is pretty much everything about what happened to me, especially with the music,” Chesney  admits. “You get so focused on what you're trying to accomplish, it takes over… and there's nothing that's going to come between you and your dream. For some people, it's sports; for me, it was the music. You know, there's a price you pay to do this, but look at what this is…

     “Or as the bridge goes, 'Lookin' back at the moments, black and white/ I wouldn't change a thing that changed my life/ For the worse, for the better, man, I was gone, gone forever… The laughs, the smiles, the trails, the tears/ It's hard to hate what got me here…' Pretty much sums it up.”

     Certainly the singer/songwriter from Luttrell, Tennessee is one of the hardest working men in music. In addition to last year's more introspective Lucky Old Sun - which yielded the multiple week #1s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and “Down The Road,” a duet with fellow Grammy nominee Mac McAnally - Chesney's Greatest Hits II was among 2009's best-selling releases.

     A headliner for only 8 of the past 10 years, Chesney was the #2 ticket seller for the past decade - and has headlined multiple stadiums each of the past 5 summers, including Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle and San Francisco where “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D” was filmed. With “Ain't Back Yet,” Chesney's found a song that embodies everything that makes this high intensity concert boil.

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Following in the footsteps of acts like U2 and the Rolling Stones, the decade's top concert draw will release a 3-D movie next spring.

"I've been trying for years to have the audience closer to me and to have me be closer to them," Chesney says. "With this production, they can't get any closer."

For Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D, more than 20 cameras followed him at summer's stadium concerts in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Foxborough, Mass. The film will be released via the Hot Ticket, a Sony Pictures alternative-content division that distributes concerts, theater and sporting events.

Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution, says he expects Summer in 3-D to play on at least 750 screens in April. "Kenny's not going to be touring next year," he says. "This is going to be a chance for (fans) to spend some time with Kenny, and I think they're going to enjoy having front-row seats."

The film will feature more than Chesney's stage show. Before his June concert at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, for example, Chesney took the 3-D cameras to a houseboat on the Ohio River. "We did a 35-minute show with all the tailgaters, right on the water. Unless you're down there, nobody gets to see that."

While Chesney won't mount a full-fledged tour in 2010, he has announced headlining festival appearances at the Bayou Country Superfest in Baton Rouge in May and BamaJam in Enterprise, Ala., in June. A few more could follow.

"I'm still going to do eight to 10 shows," Chesney says. He'll spend the year concentrating on the movie, a new album and his No Shoes Radio online station, as well as his personal life. "I've been giving to one thing for so long, and that's just not OK with me anymore."

He'll perform for the first time since wrapping his 2009 tour at Wednesday's Country Music Association Awards (ABC, 8 p.m. ET/PT), singing his latest single, I'm Alive, with Dave Matthews.

He also could win a record-setting fifth entertainer-of-the-year award. He's tied with Garth Brooks with four wins, but admits he likes the idea of having the record to himself.

"The pressure on me is how I do a better show," Chesney says. "But who wouldn't want to have their name in the history books like that?"