Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum to Open New Exhibition, Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum will explore the life and career of Kenny Chesney in a new exhibition, Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward, presented by Blue Chair Bay Rum. The exhibit will chronicle Chesney's path to stardom, from his early years playing in his university's bluegrass band to becoming one of the top touring acts of this century. The exhibit, which will be open from July 23, 2026, until June 2027, is included with museum admission.

"Kenny Chesney's creative vision and intense drive to continue raising the bar has helped him reach staggering commercial and artistic highs," said Kyle Young, chief executive officer of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "He has broken almost as many records as he has made, and his work is far from done. Through his distinctive sound and dynamic live show, he continues to expand country music's audience, its perception and its sound." 

"When you're so busy living life – literally in fast forward – you rarely pause to think about all the miles traveled, the faces you've met along the way," offered Kenny Chesney, who Billboard named the Country Artist of the Century. "Trying to decide what things to send to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum that represent a whole lot of dreams, living, songs, the work and things you don't dare imagine was as hard as anything I've ever done. But in the end, I feel like every piece of who I am is represented – and I hope that for someone who's thinking about chasing their own crazy dreams, this may be the spark to get them on their way."

The exhibit will include instruments, memorabilia, manuscripts, awards, photographs and more. Examples of items to be displayed include:

• The varsity jacket and jersey Chesney wore while he was a member of the Gibbs High School Eagles football team in the mid-1980s. He began playing Pee Wee football when he was five, and the sport has remained constant in his life.
• The Fender Concord acoustic guitar Chesney played throughout college at East Tennessee State University and after he moved to Nashville in the early 1990s. Country artists and songwriters he encountered along the way signed the instrument — including Kent Blazy, Whitey Shafer, Karen Staley, Sheb Wooley and Country Music Hall of Fame members Dean Dillon, Harlan Howard and Porter Wagoner.
• The cassette tape on which Chesney recorded a demo of "When She Calls Me Baby" on June 1, 1992. Co-written with Rick Williamson, the song was re-recorded for Chesney's debut album, In My Wildest Deams, released in 1994.
• The weathered wicker rocking chair that provided the inspiration for Chesney to write "Old Blue Chair" after waking up on the beach as the sun rose over Peter Bay on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The song was first released on his 2004 quintuple Platinum album, When the Sun Goes Down, and reappeared on his next more intimate singer-songwriter project, Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair). The chair was prominently featured on the front and back cover of the later CD and in the 2005 music video for "Old Blue Chair."
• A handwritten Nashville Number System chord chart for "You and Tequila" that was used in the studio when Chesney recorded the song in 2010. Featuring guest vocals by Grace Potter, it was released as a single from Chesney's album Hemingway's Whiskey and went to #3 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. The Grammy-nominated "You and Tequila" was co-written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter and first recorded by Carter in 2003.
• A life-size, plastic replica of the 235-pound blue marlin Chesney landed while fishing in the Virgin Islands North Drop in 2003. After having the fish mounted, he named it "Marley" in honor of reggae legend Bob Marley. The fish became an iconic tour mascot, displayed onstage as a reminder to Chesney and his road family not to take life too seriously. Nicknamed "Marley 2," this replica washed away from Chesney's home during the 2010 Nashville flood but was found several miles downstream in the Cumberland River and returned to him largely intact.
• The No Shoes Nation tank top and Diesel Safado jeans Chesney wore when he performed at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, on August 26, 2022.
• The Atwood pinto palm leaf hat that Chesney wore on the cover of his 2024 album, Born.
• The football Gillette Stadium presented to Chesney to commemorate his three sold-out shows at the Foxborough, Massachusetts venue, on August 23-25, 2025. Chesney has cultivated a close relationship with the nearby city of Boston, connecting with New Englanders who share his passions for music and sports. 
• A Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul LPR-8 electric guitar autographed by two of Chesney's musical heroes: guitarist and singer-songwriter Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, and Sammy Hagar, former lead vocalist for the rock band Van Halen, signed during his 2008 Poets & Pirates concert at San Francisco's AT&T Park.

The official exhibit playlist is now available here.

Public Programs
In support of the exhibition, the museum will host related public and family programming including:

• Interview: Buddy Cannon – Saturday, July 25, at 2:30 p.m.
  Buddy Cannon will participate in an interview about his life and career in the museum's Ford Theater. Cannon began his career playing bass for Bob Luman and Mel Tillis before shifting his focus to composing. He then started producing in the 1990s and has worked with Kenny Chesney on 17 albums, including the multi-platinum No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (2002). The interview will be hosted by the museum's Jon Freeman and feature photos, video clips and recordings. Tickets will be available here on Wednesday, June 17, at 10 a.m. Central.

About Kenny Chesney
Growing up with his mother and grandparents in East Tennessee, Kenny Chesney was raised with traditional values, a "work hard, love harder" approach to living and a sense of family and community that defined his world. Although sports were an integral part of his childhood in Luttrell, Tennessee, music was always a presence. Chesney saw bluegrass with his grandparents on local morning television's "The Cas Walker Show" and attended life-changing concerts by Conway Twitty, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Alabama. He also sang in the Gibbs High School choir and rocked to Van Halen and Steve Miller Band with friends as a teen. A marketing student at East Tennessee State University, he joined the college's famed Bluegrass Band under the guidance of acclaimed musician Jack Tottle and built a repertoire of cover songs to perform at Chucky's Trading Post outside Johnson City. After he graduated in December 1990, he moved to Nashville on the day the Gulf War started.

Playing sports growing up taught Chesney discipline, teamwork and how to work hard. He applied those principles to music, honing his songwriting, singing and performing long before he had a publishing or record deal. He still heads into each new tour season with the mentality of an athlete gearing up for a championship run: strict diet, intense physical training, multiple tech teams creating sound, lights, staging and video elements, and many weeks of rehearsals.

Songwriting was the first thing to open doors for Chesney in Nashville, where he played for tips downtown at the Turf nightclub and worked as a parking valet on Music Row. One night in his apartment, he wrote the vulnerable ballad "The Tin Man," which earned him a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose Music — the firm that had published Country Music Hall of Fame members Hank Williams and East Tennessee's Dean Dillon. Since his debut, Chesney has written or co-written many of his hits, including "I Go Back," "I'm Alive," "Pirate Flag" and "Beer in Mexico."

After moving from iconic Southern rock label Capricorn to RCA subsidiary BNA Records, he slowly but steadily gained momentum. Chesney began working with producer Buddy Cannon (initially paired with Norro Wilson) on 1997's I Will Stand and scored his first #1 with "She's Got It All." He continued in the modern country vein, until he made a conscious decision to create a blend of styles that bridged country's tradition with straightforward rock and island music on 2002's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems; the album was a three-million seller and his first #1 debut on Billboard's all-genre Top 200 albums, becoming one of the era's defining country releases. The 2004 follow-up, When the Sun Goes Down, surpassed its sales success with six hit singles. Winning the Country Music Association's Album of the Year, Sun reinforced Chesney's trusting his gut instincts. He has over 105 million RIAA certified units, including multiple Platinum albums and singles, and more than 30 #1 hits, all by making bold creative choices that proved commercially viable because they resonated with fans.

As Chesney's fame grew, he made friends with people whose music he admired and has recorded duets with Country Music Hall of Fame members George Strait, George Jones and Willie Nelson, as well as beyond genre artists including Dave Matthews, Grace Potter and Uncle Kracker and country stars Kelsea Ballerini and Megan Moroney.

Chesney's first headlining stadium show was June 7, 2003, at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had grown up going to Tennessee Volunteers football games with his father. For the last two decades, Chesney's stadium tours have been a highly anticipated fixture of the summer entertainment calendar. Perpetually among the most attended tours in any year, in any genre, Chesney's ticket counts rival U2, the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, and he is the only country artist in the Top 10 of POLLSTAR's Touring Acts of the Millennium. His ability to bring people together through music in such a massive way has seen the industry repeatedly recognize Chesney, naming him ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year four times each between 2004 and 2008.

In Spring of 2025, Chesney became the first solo and first country artist with a residency at Sphere Las Vegas. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October. His memoir "Heart Life Music" debuted at #1 on the New York Times Nonfiction Best-seller list and was named one of publisher William Morrow's 100 Books of Distinction. Chesney returns to Sphere this summer for a second residency in June and July. Having co-founded Hey Now Records, his first single "Carry On" made history as only the third single to be added by the entire Mediabase country radio panel in its first week – a first-time accomplishment for an independent label.

About the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum:
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum collects, preserves and interprets country music and its history for the education and entertainment of diverse audiences. In exhibitions, publications, digital media and educational programs, the museum explores the cultural importance and enduring beauty of the art form. Among the most-visited history museums in the United States, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was awarded the country's highest honor in the arts, the National Medal of Arts, in 2024. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Country Music Foundation operates Historic RCA Studio B®, Hatch Show Print® poster shop, Haley Gallery, CMA Theater, CMF Records, the Frist Library and Archive and CMF Press.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.

About Blue Chair Bay Rum:
Blue Chair Bay Rum embodies the carefree rhythm of a day in the Caribbean. Created to share with No Shoes Nation, Chesney distilled the essence of the best day with friends on the water by employing true craftsmanship and maintaining exceptional quality. An authentic Caribbean rum, blended with natural ingredients, it's available in: Spiced, White, Coconut, Banana, Key Lime Rum Cream, Banana Rum Cream and Pineapple Rum Cream. Blue Chair Bay^® Rum is an award-winning premium brand steeped in Kenny Chesney's heart and love for living, from beach to bottle.

SOURCE Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum