Kenny Chesney is opening up about a special friendship. In an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, Heart Life Music, the country singer revealed his favorite memory with the late Jimmy Buffett.
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In Chesney’s book, an excerpt of which was published by People, the singer writes about traveling to Key West for a recording session with Buffett.
The night before they recorded the 2004 track “License to Chill,” Chesney, Buffett, and Sunshine Smith, the co-owner and creator of Margaritaville, met up for dinner.
“Listening to Jimmy tell stories about Tennessee Williams, Hemingway’s writing, Captain Tony’s, Shel Silverstein, the characters who lived, fished, dreamed and smuggled there, time dissolved and the mythic Key West came to life,” Chesney writes of the dinner. “… Generous with his memories, it was an immersion course in the currency of things you cannot buy.”
In the middle of their meal, Buffett asked Chesney to come with him. The men proceeded to walk outside to watch the annual Key West Christmas Parade go by.
“What a special way to be introduced to the local soul of Key West,” Chesney writes. “In all these people churning with the music pouring from the clubs, I felt the spirit of what was. I’ve never been so grateful to see through someone’s eyes… The idea Jimmy cared enough to show me that part of his original Key West was a gift.”
Kenny Chesney Recalls Working With Jimmy Buffett
The next day, the men went to work at Shrimp Boat Sound, the studio Buffett had built. Being there made Chesney think back on his first time he saw Buffett in concert. That moment came well before they knew each other personally.
“I had just moved to Nashville, and I had no money. It was pouring rain, and I was up in the grass [at Starwood Amphitheater] where you go when you can’t afford a real seat,” Chesney told the outlet. “But that night changed my life because I’d never seen anything like it, for someone to give so much love from the stage and connect with an audience like that. I was lying in bed at night going, ‘Wow, I can’t believe what I just saw.’”
Flash forward many years, and the men became friends and collaborators, working together in the studio.
In his book, Chesney writes, “This felt so natural, as if hanging around the studio with Jimmy Buffett was no big deal. I thought about that night at Starwood Amphitheater, where I couldn’t afford a Coke.”
Speaking to the outlet, Chesney called his relationship with Buffett “surreal.”
“He taught me it was possible to paint pictures with words,” he said of Buffett. “What a gift.”
Heart Life Music is due out Nov. 4.
Photo by Lucien Capehart/Getty Images
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