Frankie Ballard ‘Thankful’ To Kenny

Frankie Ballard has a few turning points in his music career.  The first came when he was a teenager, watching Stevie Ray Vaughan on TV.  That led to him learning how to play guitar, and then playing clubs in his home area of Michigan.  But another critical moment came in 2008, when Kenny Chesney did a special promotion as part of his Poets & Pirates Tour.  He talked about it with Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton:

“I realized it was time to do something bigger, and that’s when Kenny Chesney came through with his Next Big Star competition.  It was a chance for local bands to get to open for him.  I tried and won and got to open for him in Grand Rapids.  That was another big moment for me, because that gave me the confidence to try my hand in Nashville.  It was shortly after that when I started making trips down here to see what Nashville was all about.

Did you meet Kenny? Very briefly, I got to say ‘Thank you for having me,’ so it wasn’t anything too significant, but it was such a cool thing for him to do for local bands, it sparked my entire career, so I’ll always be thankful.”

Tags: frankie ballard, kenny chesney

Category: Audio