Kenny Chesney on "That Lucky Old Sun"

About this episode

Kenny Chesney discusses his experiences with Willie Nelson and the impact of their collaboration on country music.

Kenny Chesney, a Country Music Hall of Famer and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator, talks about Willie’s 1976 cover of “That Lucky Old Sun.” That beautiful, hushed track, which opened the album The Sound in Your Mind , was one of Willie’s first covers from the Great American Songbook, setting the stage for his Stardust triumph two years later...and hearing it now takes Kenny back to an old tour bus, when he was a young artist studying Willie’s singing. From there he gets into the duet the two cut on the song in the mid-2000s—which ended up being a pivotal record for Willie—plus what it was like to produce Willie's 2008 album, Moment of Forever , and the way Willie helped inspire the artistic change that grew Kenny into Billboard ’s Top Country Artist of the 21st Century.

People in this episode

Host: John Spong

Guest: Kenny Chesney

Topics covered

• country music
• artistic collaboration
• music production
• song covers
• influence in music

Keywords

• Kenny Chesney
• Willie Nelson
• That Lucky Old Sun
• country music
• music production
• Stardust
• Moment of Forever

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Billboard

Books & works: That Lucky Old Sun, The Sound in Your Mind, Stardust, Moment of Forever

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