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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With a social consciousness grounded in kindness and loving each other, Kenny Chesney has built No Shoes Nation with equal parts “we’re all in this together” and “let’s love life while we’re here.” As his Trip Around the Sun Tour leans into its third straight record-breaking weekend at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium, he debuts a video for “Trip Around the Sun” that merges his concert reality with his behind-the-scenes life.
“As we’re getting back out there, I wanted people to remember how much fun, how many good times and memories are made at these shows,” marvels the 8-time Entertainer of the Year. “I mean, when we’re firing, there’s no feeling like it on that stage, but even more exciting for me are the faces, the places and the moments out in the parking lot and the stands. To me, it’s a straight line from there to the state of mind that is all that boat footage, being out on the water and having the best day of your life… And I wanted to capture that as we’re starting another trip around, well, the country.”
With a new label and a deeply personal album called Songs for the Saints coming July 27, Chesney is, in many ways, in a new place in his life. In that spirit, he’s tapped Spotify’s Hot Country platform to debut the new video. It will air in tandem with a Spotify Cover Story that goes behind-the-scenes of putting this year’s tour together.
“Spotify is a place where music is a living breathing thing,” Chesney says. “They want to make music have more dimension than just a song, and I think because of what ‘Trip Around the Sun’ is, it was the perfect home. When (director) Shaun (Silva) and I were talking about this video, we wanted to show how people live within these songs – and use the music to carry them from year-to-year. What better outlet for something like that?”
Opening with the existential embrace of the inevitable, “They say the sea is rising, and that’s alright with me/ Cause there ain’t no other place than on the sea I’d like to be…,” the song measures finding the best potential in the things you can’t control. Later romping through the bliss of grateful living, the song captures that rush in a bridge of, “We’re just a hands up roller coaster, flying with no brakes/ Just a speck of salt rollin’ down a tidal wave/ Just a Babe Ruth baseball, hit over the wall/ We’re just a drop of rain over a waterfall.”
“The last thing I’m gonna do is preach or tell someone how to live their life,” says the songwriter/superstar from East Tennessee. “With all the bad news, the drama and hate, I’d like to think we can be a counter-balance, or maybe a reminder it doesn’t have to be so intense and angry. To me, the song says, ‘Whatever’s coming, and we can’t maybe stop it, but we can know we sowed love and had fun along the way.’ What else is there?”
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