Inside Chesney’s FloraBamaJama
A few weeks ago, Kenny Chesney hosted his only major concert of 2014: The Flora Bama Jama. Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton experienced the event with about 40,000 fans, and spoke with Kenny about it.
(L) Your shirt was drenched was in the first 5 minutes: (K) I wasn’t prepared for how hot it was gonna be. I knew it was gonna be hot. Those fans, I couldn’t complain at all. They had been in it since 8 that morning, and I went on at 5PM. I got up there and my shirt was drenched in the first 4 or 5 minutes. Then you look at all those people that had been there in the sun all day, and it just goes to show you the lengths people will go to hear their favorite song.
(L) The smartest folks were in the boats, and they could jump in the water: (K) I lost count at 175 boats, but it was amazing to see. You’re right, if I had gone to something like that, I would have loved to have been on a boat. You got drinks, you got a bathroom, you jump in the water, you got food, you got stuff! So that was the best place to be. I hadn’t played in an environment like that that made me feel any better. It was an amazing experience, to see what your fans of capable of, and how they responded to us being there, and how much they cared. It’s everything No Shoes Nation is built on. It really is. They love music, they love life, they love combining the two, and they love doing it in that environment, and they know I’d rather play in that environment than anywhere in the world. Cause you can smell the ocean, and smell spilt beer and fried food, and all that kind of stuff. It’s everything I love!
Every bit of ground was filled, the roofs of the condos were filled, even the parking garages were filled with people. Could you see? I did, and we’ve seen some of the footage, we had drones with cameras, helicopter footage, and we saw some of that, and we had a few cameras on a few of the boats, and it was amazing how the people responded, and it’s because they care, they have fun with our music, and it’s what No Shoes Nation was built on. We watched it before we went on. You were there with me, and it was a celebration for us as a road family, it was just a big celebration of the music we made, the people we made it for, and it was beautiful, it was a blast, and I hope we get to do it again.
I was with you before you went on stage, and watched you as you left for the stage, and I wondered what you were thinking, as you walked to the stage, after being away for a year, and then hearing the crowd chant ‘Welcome to the Big Revival, Welcome To The Big Revival,’ and I was wondering what’s in Kenny’s mind right now? Well it was a very spiritual feeling. Because you hope they respond like that. I took a year off, Lon, to concentrate on my connection with the audience. I was hoping to make a record where I could take those songs and inspire those people. The title of the album, The Big Revival, goes to the core of why I wanted to take a year off, is to revive that connection, and hopefully take my audience and pull them by the hand to places we’ve never been. That is exciting. To know we have the record we made, and to walk down that boardwalk, and to hear 40,000 people in that environment chant Welcome to the Big Revival, it’s the message I wanted to say to them, but they were saying it to me, and that was an amazing moment, and it just made me hungry to go up there and do what I do.
One of the things I noticed right away when they gave me my laminate was it said “first annual,’ and I didn’t see that on any press release: Well, we were assuming a lot, and we hope it’s the first annual, and there are a lot of pieces that have to come together for it to be an annual event. But I certainly hope it’s something we go to do again. I would like to do that every day we play. There’s a lot of beach in the world! We can go to a lot of places like that, because that’s a perfect environment for me and my road family. My gosh we love it.
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