One thing that can be counted on is that whenever we rag on Kenny Chesney, his fans always loudly defend him.
So, you know, it’s just a shame that Kenny Chesney more or less thinks that all his fans are dicks.
That’s what he’s implied, anyway – yesterday Kenny Chesney won the ACM Entertainer Of The Year award for the fourth straight year running but, because the winner was chosen by fans rather than a faceless group of industry insiders, he’s got all stroppy for it and claimed that it doesn’t count as much any more. Oh Kenny, when will you learn that it’s never smart to criticise your fans, especially when they all own shotguns and are the biological result of institutionalised pan-generational incest.
There was a time when Kenny Chesney was the man who married Renee Zellweger and then split up with her, causing people to – apparently wrongly – assume that he was gay. But not any more. Now everyone knows Kenny Chesney as the most entertaining country singer in the world.
It’s true – meet Kenny Chesney and he won’t hit you with one of those traditional country buzzkills like trying to choke you and kiss you at the same time or shooting you in the face. No, so long as the dictionary definition of the word entertaining is “making the exact same joke about the words ‘shift’ and ‘shit’ being quite similar nine separate times in the space of one song,” then Kenny Chesney will always be the most entertaining country singer in the world.
Kenny Chesney is on an unbelievable streak of entertainingness, too – he won the ACM Entertainer Of The Year award last year, and he won it the year before that as well. And the year before that. And he won it again at the ACM awards last night, too. That puts him on a equal footing with Garth Brooks and just one shy of the all-time record of five wins, so you’d assume that he’d be thrilled with the result.
Except he really isn’t. For the first time in ACM history. this year’s Entertainer Of The Year award was voted for by the public. You know, the people who actually buy CDs and concert tickets and are probably the best gauge of what’s entertaining and what isn’t. Some people would think that being given a prize by the public is better than being given one by a panel of industry insiders each with their own personal investments and biases, but not Kenny Chesney.
As soon as he won his ACM award last night, Kenny Chesney threw a bit of a tantrum about how he hates the public, especially those who like him enough to go out of his way to vote for him. More or less. Entertainment Weekly reports:
”The entertainer of the year trophy is supposed to represent heart and passion and an amazing amount of sacrifice, commitment, and focus,” Chesney said. “That’s the way Garth [Brooks] won it four times, that’s the way I won it, that’s the way [George] Strait won it, Reba [McEntire], Alabama all those years. That’s what it’s supposed to represent.” Chesney went on to say that the academy turned the award ”into a sweepstakes to see who can push people’s buttons the hardest on the Internet.”
Of course, as galactically stupid of him as it was to suggest that his award was devalued by the public’s involvement, he does have a point. For starters, if this award was mainly voted for by Kenny Chesney fans, then that’s proof enough that none of the voters have any taste whatsoever.
And secondly, Kenny’s right – this sort of vote is just a gimmick, and one that can be easily corrupted by one nominated act exhorting their fans to vote again and again to secure the win.
It’s a good job that Kenny Chesney doesn’t stoop to that level, which is why we’re sure the blurb on the homepage to his website reading…
Kenny Chesney is nominated for his 4th consecutive ACM Entertainer of the Year and we need all of Kenny’s fans to get out and Vote. Below are several tools to share with everyone you know to help spread the word. YOU have the power! VOTE for Kenny Chesney as ACM’s Entertainer of the Year!
…is just a typo. And also that the big ‘Vote for Kenny Chesney’ banner, the two ‘Vote For Kenny Chesney’ graphics that people can embed in their blogs, the gigantic ‘VOTE FOR KENNY CHESNEY AT THE ACM AWARDS’ headline and the four different ‘Vote For Kenny Chesney’ flyers that fans are asked to print out and actually hand to people in the street that all feature heavily at the top of his website are probably the work of bastard hackers or something.
Read more:
soul416 says
I officially love you. LOL, this article was so hysterical. Did you also read about him saying that Rascal Flatts basically shouldn’t have offered a free mp3 to the fan club members after voting? As if an mp3 would change someone’s mind to vote for them, and it wasn’t as if it was against the rules, yet the ACMs still wiped out all of the RF votes because of it. Rascal Flatts were robbed, period.
Kenny Chesney is a jackass and a half. What the hell does he know about integrity, he couldn’t even keep a three-month-marriage together. I guess that shows up how much shit he’s got on the shelf. Keep up the good work.
Rob Delaney says
*speechless*
A Yank who gets it?
Pleased to meet you, soul416.
Helen says
He is a dick. I hope his CD sales go down the toilet and then he will be kissing our asses!
Susan says
He needs to remember that his fans are who got him where he is today. He should have never took that award if this is how he feels! I am not a fan anymore! I wonder how he would feel if fans stopped buying his Cd’s and concert tickets! He could not live the kind of life he his living today! He needs to stop being selfish and realize that there are far worst things in this world right now, like our troops, high gas, and people like me who have medical problems and had 5 surgeries and lost everything because I could not work. That’s way he needs a reality check!!!
fairly says
I think Kenny is right! It’s turned into vote by people who vote over and over and over – like American Idol. It’s a joke. I’ve never liked the ‘face-less’ people doing the voting but then I don’t like the idea that people can just vote repeatedly. It’s ridiculous.
I’m not a country music fan but I understand what Kenny is trying to say. What I have heard of his music is pure quality.
Kat Fuud says
All of this negative editorial from Stuart because he’s not a country music fan! Pretty shameful if ya ask me.
Try be a little less negative with your editorials.
Shannon says
The voting system is a joke when u can vote over and over. I’m sure Kenny appreciates his fans but he is right and I don’t even vote for american idol because I don’t have time to vote over and over again and in a voting system that’s actually accurate 1 vote can make a difference but not this way.
Stephen says
Get your facts straight before you print something and make yourself look like an idiot! Kenny did not throw a tantrum. He was asked what he thought about fans voting for Entertainer of the Year and he answered honestly. I applaud him and totally agree. If the ACM’s want to have a fan voted award, they should start a new category that is awarded that way from the beginning instead of changing it after all of these years.
For the record, if you’ve ever been to a Kenny Chesney show you’ll agree that he deserved that award. So regardless of how the voting occurred….Kenny deserved it, Kenny won it….end of story.
sarah says
So Kenny is saying that the award is now a popularity award based on looks and red neck women fantasizing about him rather than talent? Then how did he win? The man is seriously lacking in the looks and talent department, but he’s a country entertainer so that’s a given.
Keep up the good work.
soul416 says
The problem with you sycophantic country morons is that you don’t know ALL that was said, so who are the ones that need to get their facts straight?! eh?Like the people who originally vote for that Award(IE: ACM committee members) actually go and see performances? Right, and if you believe that then I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you. If Country Music didn’t want to be a rip off of more popular award shows, then maybe they should tell their artists to stop ripping off other genres, including Kenny.
If you’ve ever seen Kenny’s shows, you’d say that he doesn’t have much talent at all. All of his songs sound the same, he can’t sing, and he’s an arrogant feck. So nevermind the fact that Rascal Flatts got cheated because they got their votes voided, just so that your favorite won huh Stiff-one. If Kenny deserved that award, he wouldn’t have needed to complain to get RF’s votes voided(and that’s exactly what happened otherwise he would never have commented about it, he gave himself away). Kenny isn’t even in the top 3 in concert rankings, that right there tells anyone with common sense that he DIDN’T deserve it.
lovekenny says
In response to Soul416:
Im not even going to argue with the fact that you said Kenny doesn’t have any talent, because he is one of the greatest country artists/songwriters of all time. And if you’ve seen Kenny’s shows, then you’d know that he is constantly thanking his fans for coming out and telling them how much he loves them…
ANYWAY…
what really got me a little confused was this..
“Kenny isn’t even in the top 3 in concert rankings, that right there tells anyone with common sense that he DIDN’T deserve it.”
hahahha. what a joke. if you followed kenny you know that he has played to over 1 million fans every year for the past 7 summers. and he is the top selling act for any genre since 2000, and has the longest string of top ten hits since 2000.
so before you go dissing him, this goes to the author of this editorial also, get your facts straight and appreciate what these musicians do because they work extremely hard.
J Bollocks says
Oh it’s that Kenny, not the Kenny out of that Australian movie dealing with a guy who deals with Porta-Loo’s.
The “turd” reference confused me there.
Alyssa says
Now, y’all are misquoting him, as he said you would in the press room that night.
And you’re damn right I’m going to defend him, as you said WE would. But I won’t go all 5 million exclamation marks on y’all.
Now, I really shouldn’t explain much more, due to the fact that his whole press room interview is on youtube, courtesy of the ACM’s. Watch it and you can see that he’s being very mature about the situation, and he has a good point about it.
In response to the Rascal Flatts thing… Kenny didn’t throw a fit and say that they shouldn’t have done that. He said that it was an example of what they’ve lowered the artists to as far as EOTY goes. It’s become more of a popularity contest rather than an award to really work for. As Kenny said, “they were turning it into a sweepstakes to see who could push people’s buttons the hardest.”
And he could only say that because he won. If he lost and said that, THEN it would’ve appeared to be whining.
“It’s an industry complaint.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92yNVMu4U08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugohZx4wSwM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiQ7o7MkuEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ9K_POIEXw
’nuff said.
Even if he doesn’t win next year, it’s not gonna change the parties in the parking lot or the memories that us Chesney Chasers make at his shows.
:]
Sarah says
Alright, Stu, now I have a bone to pick with you. “…institutionalised pan-generational incest.”
I may not be Southern by birth, nor will I speckle my comments with y’all, but really? Low blow.
betty says
I have never watched this man perform or listened to his music. He reminds me of something out of a cartoon with his big EARS holding his big black hat up. I can’t watch for laughing. Besides, i like the old, real country music. Those guys can sing and they have never won any of these big awards. Go see one when they are near you. They don’t have to jump all over the stage and bust up instruments to put on a show. Just extra good music and entertainment.
Gail says
I attended Kenney’s concert last night at the Nissan Pavillion in Bristow, VA. He was very appreciative of his fans and wanted everyone to have a good time. His songs talk about everyday life to which the average person can relate. Songs about the good ole days and the daily challenges everyone faces. I think his critics should listen to the words of just a couple of his songs .. he doesn’t “bust up instruments”. He talks to the fans and tries to connect. And I think his personal life is his “personal” life. I don’t care why his marriage broke up. I think it’s great that the two of them haven’t been trashing each other in the media. How insecure and childish is it to cut-down a form of entertainment just because it is not your style of music ? You sound silly to me … your opinion means NOTHING to those who enjoy Kenney’s music.