Kenny Chesney to Release First Book, ‘Heart Life Music,’ in November

Nearly 35 years after making his way to Nashville from a small town in East Tennessee, then steadily ascending to become one of music’s most reliable stadium headliners and amassing 17 No. 1 Billboard Top Country Albums chart leaders (and nine all-genre Billboard 200 chart-leading albums)–Kenny Chesney is shining a light on the places, people and communities that have shaped his life.

Chesney will release his first book, Heart Life Music, on Nov. 4, 2025 via William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Chesney crafted the book with his longtime friend and collaborator, award-winning journalist/author Holly Gleason, and according to a release, the book aims to capture the essence of “the superstar’s journey from small town East Tennessee dreamer to commanding the largest stages across the nation will capture the sparks of creativity, venture to places long gone, make unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas, drift across the waters of the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, encounter and collaborate with heroes, engage with a coterie of singular folks, friends and inspirations, and always find the joy of being unabashedly alive.”

In a statement, Chesney said, “This is not my memoir, but something far better. It is almost a love letter to people who shaped and inspired me, the fans who’ve been there from tiny bars, radio stations who believed when nobody else did, a team who just kept coming back, legends who gave me wisdom and opportunities and all the friends who’ve been there along the way. To me, that’s where the music came from – and this is the story of how it turned into the soundtrack for the way No Shoes Nation lives their lives, too.”

Chesney, who is a four-time entertainer of the year winner at both the CMA and ACM Awards, also noted in a statement, “I always said I’d never write a book. Too many things happened almost to be believed, let alone lived, but I realized with the world moving in such fast forward motion, too much of what made Nashville, the music business and our lives great would be lost to the churn of the next click. To have been in a room as a kid writing with Dean Dillon, have Sean Payton call an NFL press conference to announce he’s drafting me to the Saints, be in Tuff Gong Studios with Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and Alvin ‘Seeco’ Patterson or on a private plane with George Jones after opening for him defies logic. So, for everyone in No Shoes Nation, I realized: you deserved to share the magic.”

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