Meeting Kenny Chesney

My wife, daughter and I were on vacation for the past week or so and our last stop was Greenville, SC. We stayed at the downtown Hyatt like we did 2 years ago -- I get a good deal as I work for Hyatt. We had a really nice time there since we really love the area and people there. A few weeks before our trip, I had found out Kenny Chesney was coming to Greenville around the same time we were taking our vacation. I then looked into getting tickets as soon as I found out. For some reason I thought I had read on Ticketmaster that his concert was on Saturday, July 9 (the day we were leaving SC) and did not buy the tickets. When we arrived in Greenville, I discovered that Kenny's concert was actually on Thursday, July 7. Needless to say, I was pretty dissapointed that I didn't get the tickets.

My wife and I had just seen Kenny in concert in Ft. Lauderdale the night before he and Rene Zellweger said their "I do's", so I wasn't that pissed I didn't get tickets to his Greenville show -- Pissed nothertheless. By the way, his show in Ft. Lauderdale was friggin' AWESOME!

So, on the night Mr. Chesney is to perform (July 7, 2005), my wife, daughter and I headed out of our hotel room and was on our way to dinner at one of our favorite Greenville restaurants. We jump into the elevator and we see this young man wearing a Kenny Chesney shirt, cowboy hat, and jeans. My wife asks, "Are you going to the show tonight?" The guy says, "Yep, and Kenny is right downstairs in the lobby." We both are like, "GET THE CAMERA!" So, I make a b-line back to the hotel room and grab my camera. My wife suggested I get my Kenny Chesney shirt for him to sign -- I grabbed that too.

We hopped back into the elevator, went down to the lobby where he was sitting and I said, "Hello Mr. Chesney." He slowly (at least it seemed like it was in slow motion), looked at me and smiled. I offered him my hand and we shook hands. I said, "I know you get a lot of people asking for pictures and stuff, but would it be okay?" Kenny says, "Sure no problem." He was so cool about the whole thing. I know it's not such a big thing for him to see me, but it was for me. I was pretty nervous and started talking about how I didn't get tickets to his show. I did let him know that we saw him in Ft. Lauderdale though. My wife said that he had changed our lives. Kenny said, "God bless you guys." He has changed our lives in a way... His songs do bring our family closer together and I think about my daughter a lot with his songs. I started getting a little emotional after my wife had said that.

Kenny was with two other folks, possibly tour managers or maybe relatives. We had the nice lady take our picture and I also asked Kenny if he could sign my shirt. We looked for a pen from the hotel personel, but then Kenny was like, "I found one." I plan on getting the shirt framed along with the picture we took with him.

If you ever read this Kenny... Thanks again for meeting with us!