The rain didn’t matter. Kenny Chesney came to MetLife on Saturday, August 17th, ready to play in the home of the New York Giants and Jets and set his new attendance record for the venue with 61,011. He previously had a best of 59,999 for his show at the stadium in 2022. But, beyond the numbers was the heart of the crowd that waited through a rain delay to celebrate with Chesney.
“We could tell even before we walked out onstage, MetLife was ready for this show,” Chesney raved after the show. “No Shoes Nation always shows up hard when we play New York, but this crowd, even before they could see us, they made sure we felt all that passion. It was incredible – and then when we walked out, it didn’t let up, not even in the ballads.”
For Chesney, making his eighth appearance at MetLife, it’s been a summer of breaking personal records across the country. Whether selling SRO tickets in Tampa, moving the stage all the way back in several cities, or figuring out how to create less obstructed views, the songwriter-superstar from East Tennessee has been committed to having No Shoes Nation in the house.
“I never take the faces, or the songs for granted,” the man the Wall Street Journal called “The King of the Road” explained. “For lots of people these songs are their life, and I want to give that every bit of who I am. It’s an honor to mark someone’s moments and memories; you can tell by the way they sing, how intensely they feel what you’re doing.”
It was also a celebration of the spirit of friendship. Beyond revisiting his 6-week No. 1 “When The Sun Goes Down” with Uncle Kracker, as well as sharing Kracker’s redux of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” he had Megan Moroney bounce onstage for a spirited “All The Pretty Girls” and a funky, extended “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.” But it was during the encore of “Don’t Happen Twice,” that one of the two little girls who came onstage to receive a football helmet reached onto her wrist – and handed the 8-time Entertainer of the Year her bracelet.
“There’s no amount of money that’s more precious than that,” he said of the gesture. “You could feel all that love. It was all that love that had pouring over us all night long. To be on that stage, singing these songs for No Shoes Nation in a place like MetLife? What could be more perfect?”
Whether the life-affirming “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” the surging lookback of “Young” and “I Go Back’ or the wistful encore “Anything But Mine,” No Shoes Nation was in the zone – moving in stereo with the sweat-soaked musician who never stopped. With over 200 stadium shows to date, he’s not only growing No Shoes Nation, he’s the only country artist in the MetLife/Meadowlands Top 10, as well as being the #2 ticket-seller at MetLife.
