Kenny Chesney says he always knew Taylor Swift was | Music News

Kenny Chesney revealed he knew Taylor Swift was meant for one thing particular the second he met her teenage self.

The nation star, 57, remembers in his upcoming ebook Heart Life Music, how Swift was initially set to open for him on his 2007 Flip-Flop Summer Tour before sponsorship guidelines pressured her to step apart.

At the time, a beer company joined as a sponsor, and since Swift was still a minor, she might no longer participate. Chesney, was decided and personally wrote her a verify.

“With Taylor, I mean, she had the eye of the tiger even as a teenager. And I recognized that early on,” Chesney told People. “You can’t look into a crystal ball predict and see what happened to her, but I could tell that she was really talented and really wanted it. And even at a young age, she was a really good songwriter. So I knew something special was going to happen there.”

Swift later shared her reminiscence of that gesture in her 2023 Time cowl story, explaining that Chesney’s verify got here with a observe that read, “I’m sorry that you couldn’t come on the tour, so I wanted to make it up to you.” The then-rising singer used it to help launch her profession. “I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses,” Swift told Time. “I was able to fuel my dreams.”

Chesney told USA Today that he reached out to Swift after seeing the story. “I texted her and told her thank you for the love, and I was stunned she remembered it,” he said. Over his more than three a long time in nation music, Chesney has continued to assist up-and-coming artists, often recognizing future stars early on.

One of those artists is Kelsea Ballerini, who grew up in the same Tennessee city as Chesney. “We have a really strong connection because of that, and we have a song together, and we’ve become really good friends over the years,” he said.

In 2024, Chesney introduced another rising artist, Megan Moroney, on his Sun Goes Down Tour. At first, he wasn’t sure how she would match in, given that she only had one tune out at the time.

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“I didn’t know Megan before we went out on the road in 2024 at all, and I say in the book that I almost regretted the decision because I didn’t want to set her up to fail,” he says. “But when she got out there, I mean, she hit the stage like she designed it. And I didn’t see that coming, all the fun we had with her. She and I became really great friends.”

Chesney and Moroney are nominated for Musical Event of the Year at the 2025 CMA Awards for their duet You Had to Be There. Chesney says Moroney’s success comes down to both expertise and persona.

“Megan’s fantastic. I mean, her personality is one of the reasons that she connects so well with her audience,” he says. “Yes, she’s an incredible songwriter, a great artist, but she’s got a spark that not a lot of people have.”

Heart Life Music shall be launched on November 4 and is out there now for preorder. Chesney’s accompanying 10-stop ebook tour begins November 1 in Johnson City, Tennessee.