Kenny Chesney Makes History at Historic Rose Bowl

For Kenny Chesney, playing the Rose Bowl decades ago, was a bucket list item. And when he took the stage at the iconic venue built in 1922, he took it with all the intensity of every college football team that played there on New Year’s Day, the athletes at the ’84 Summer Olympics and the various teams at the many World Cup matches that have played there.

"You know when you wake up and you see that sign, you’re on hallowed ground,” Chesney says. “I’ve seen so many games played there, so much history – and I understand the heart it took from every athlete who’s ever come out of those tunnels. To stand on that stage, I knew I wanted to try to honor all those folks who’ve come before us.”

With his current The Big Revival Tour, Chesney broke his own record at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field with 55,381, Green Bay’s Lambeau Field with 53,363, Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field with 54,313 and Minneapolis’ Target Stadium for the third time with 44,152.

And his Rose Bowl set was no exception. With Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis on the side of the stage, Chesney played 19 songs before taking a breath – and then returned with the night’s co-headliner Jason Aldean to play four more, including spirited covers of John Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good” and Bryan Adams’ “Summer of '69.”

“Those folks had had a long day in all that heat, but man, they were so ready for us… ready to hear the music, to sing along, to make every single song matter,” Chesney says. “When I dropped out during ‘Anything But Mine,’ they sang so clear and so true, you could’ve made a record out of it – and for me, they made a memory that will last a lifetime. To play a place where football means so much, especially to an audience that live, I’ll never forget it...”

With upcoming stadium shows at Denver’s Sports Authority Stadium at Mile High Aug. 8, E. Rutherford, NJ’s Met Life Stadium Aug. 15, Detroit’s Ford Field Aug. 22 and a double at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium Aug. 28-29, Chesney will have headlined 135 stadium plays since his Washington, DC/Pittsburgh/Boston stadium run in 2005.