Apr 3, 2008

   Nashville, TN: Phone calls poured into the label and his website was flooded with people looking for information and Kenny Chesney, on the brink of embarking on his 2008 Poets & Pirates Tour couldn't have been happier about the response to his Next Big Star competition. Chesney and team are looking for the most deserving local music acts and giving them the opportunity to not only open his show in their hometown, but have the shot at being the opening act for the final weekend of what promises to be the biggest tour of Chesney's 6 years of playing to over a million people each summer.

    "I didn't know what to expect," admits Chesney, who's won the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year six times. "In some ways, it was a crazy idea and in others, it's a lot of work, but when I look at those fans, think about their dream and how I might get somebody doing what I was doing a few years ago a little bit closer to it, it just seemed like the right thing. This response shows me the fans are as psyched up about it as I am."

    Chesney's Next Big Star certainly promises to be a comprehensive search for deserving young artists. Working with a local radio station in each tour market, there will be on-air, online and on-site promotions soliciting video and/or audio submissions that include at least one original song and covers by any act that is not part of their respective Poets & Pirates line-up. All contestants must be 21 years of age -- or older -- and currently without a recording contract.'

    Those submissions will be culled by the radio station to their Top 10 choices. A panel of Music Row professionals will select the Final 4 - who will each have 15 minutes to show a local club why they're "the next Big Star."  For the live competition - which will be judged by a radio personality, a venue staff member, a guest judge and audience response -- will be comprised of only original songs.

    "The song is everything," Chesney explains. "When I came to Nashville, it was to try and be a writer, to figure out how to put real life to music and my first break was getting signed to Acuff-Rose Music Publishing, where Hank Williams was once signed. I think to have that edge today, you need to write and since the Grand Prize winner gets to audition for the SONYBMG Nashville A&R team, I want the winner to have a really good shot of getting that record deal.  I'd like to think I helped somebody get about the hardest thing there is to get: a deal."

    In the first stadium markets, the Next Big Star competition will be the night before. In amphitheater and arena markets, the Next Big Star event will be a week to ten days out. Submissions for both will begin in the vicinity of three weeks out, but shall be specific to each market. Details can be found at www.kennychesney.com.

    In addition, each winner's opening set will be videotape for review by the Poets & Pirates tour producers, who will be picking the best three opening acts. From those three finalists, the SonyBMG Nashville team, along with representatives from Chesney's management team, will select the Grand Prize winner who will open the final three shows of the Poets & Pirates 2008 tour, including the opening event at the NFL Stadium in Indianapolis which is the last date of the tour.

    "I hope this gets a lot of people out to support local music," says the man who spent 14 weeks at #1 on the Country Singles chart last year alone with "Don't Blink," "Never Wanted Nothing More" and his own "Beer In Mexico." "To me, there's so much great talent everywhere that isn't able to punch through the layers… and I'm hoping a few great acts get seen, get heard, and maybe even get their shot. To me, if I can give that back to some deserving artist, then that's about all I can ask for - since I know our crowds are gonna rock like they always do."