Kenny Chesney was born March 26, 1968, in Knoxville, Tenn., and raised in nearby Luttrell. He attended college at East Tennessee State in Johnson City and became a fixture in the area's venues, including Chuckie's Trading Post and Quarterback's Barbecue.

"I grew up in a very small town, went to a small elementary, then high school -- and got to play football as a starter. I skinny dipped and fished in a lake, had my heart broken by my high school girlfriend. I've lived like a lot of guys listening to my music live… And I think that's why people buy my records, Because they can relate to the guy singing those songs: They feel like the songs are about their lives, because they're about my life -- and I'm not all that different from them, even now."

He grew up listening to both country and rock & roll, but didn't get serious about music until college, when he studied marketing at East Tennessee State University. He received a guitar as a Christmas present and set about practicing, and was soon performing with the college bluegrass band. He soon started writing songs as well and played for tips in local venues -- most often a Mexican restaurant -- every night he could.

Contemporary country star Kenny Chesney didn't have the immediate breakout success that many of his peers enjoyed upon signing with major labels, but gradually built up a significant following via hard work, pop-friendly ballads, and a likable, average-guy persona. An awakening of sorts came when he went into the Classic Recording Studio in Bristol, Va. Backed by several musicians he knew from college (who are now the core of Alison Krauss' band), he recorded an album's worth of songs he'd written. When he pressed up a thousand copies, sold them all at his shows and made enough to buy a new Martin guitar, he realized he was onto something. A month after graduating from college with a degree in advertising, he headed down I-40 west to Nashville in early 1991. After graduation in 1991, he moved to Nashville and became the resident performer at the Turf, a rougher honky tonk in the city's historic district.

The going was slow the first couple of years. He made the rounds of the publishing companies without much success. He went to see the only person he knew in the business, producer Kyle Lehning, who told him, "You've definitely got something, but it ain't there yet." The only steady gig he could find playing music was in a down and dirty honky-tonk called the Turf. This was on Nashville's storied Lower Broadway before the area was gentrified. In 1992, the head of publisher/writer relations at BMI set up an audition with Opryland Music Group. Chesney came out of the audition with a songwriter's contract. A year or so later, an appearance at a songwriter's showcase led to a contract with Capricorn Records, which had recently started a country division. Chesney released his debut album, In My Wildest Dreams, in late 1993. Unfortunately for Chesney, Capricorn wasn't much of a country label; not only was the album underpromoted, but the label's country division shut down completely not long after its release. Still, it sold 100,000 copies and caught the attention of several big-time major labels. RCA's Joe Galante put in a call and not only offered Chesney a contract but also to buy the masters of his Capricorn album. Galante signed Chesney to RCA's affiliated label, BNA Records. His Capricorn album sold only about 100,000 units, but All I Need to Know (1995), his debut BNA disc, more than tripled that figure.

The album gave him his first two Top Ten hits in the title track and "Fall in Love." His follow-up, 1996's Me and You, became his first album to go gold, thanks to two number two singles in the title track and "When I Close My Eyes." 1997's I Will Stand was another gold-selling effort that gave Chesney his first-ever number one hit in "She's Got It All," plus another number two with "That's Why I'm Here." His big-time breakthrough, however, came with 1999's Everywhere We Go, which sold over two million copies and spawned two number one hits with "You Had Me From Hello" and "How Forever Feels"; it also featured another Top Ten single in "What I Need to Do," and another, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," that just missed.

Chesney also made headlines in 2000, when he hopped on a police officer's horse at a fair in New York state. Chesney said he had permission, but when the officer tried to pull him off, touring pal Tim McGraw blocked the policeman's efforts. Both men were acquitted for their alleged crimes -- Chesney for disorderly conduct, McGraw for obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. The publicity was priceless, as Chesney found himself with his highest media exposure to date.

In 2000, Chesney issued his first Greatest Hits compilation, and two newly recorded songs -- "I Lost It" and "Don't Happen Twice" -- went to number three and number one, respectively. Greatest Hits became Chesney's second straight double-platinum release, and topped the country LP charts. He followed it with the all-new No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem in early 2002, which gave him his strongest commercial performance yet. It, too, hit number one on the country album charts, and spun off four Top Ten singles in "Young," the number one "The Good Stuff," the Bill Anderson co-write "A Lot of Things Different," and "Big Star."

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems finds Kenny Chesney again holding a mirror up to himself -- and all the folks back where he comes from. If the 12 songs contained herein are a little older, a little wiser, a little more aware, they still capture the unbridled joy being young, life lived for the pure feeling of it and the unburnished emotions of people who prefer to experience rather than analyze what's happening to them.

With "Young" Chesney has found a way to merge content with that infectious feel good beat. And the merger of groove and bigger reality also informs "Never Gonna Feel Like That Again," a breezy song about phases in a young man's life -- from playing football as a kid, to falling in love and making love for the first time, to having to face the consequences of two kids in lust in a way where ultimately each transition leaves the singer richer for the passage.

Along with a hugely successful tour in 2003, Chesney headlined a concert at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, filmed a behind-the-scenes DVD, and released the holiday album All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan.

He repeated the win, this time as Entertainer of the Year, with Be as You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair). Chesney found himself the subject of much tabloid fodder in 2005 with his surprise marriage to actress Renée Zellweger (he had composed 1999's "You Had Me from Hello" after watching Zellweger in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire). The pair split that same year, citing irreconcilable differences, and Chesney released the chart-topping Road and the Radio in November.

"It's especially what 'The Road & The Radio' is about?that idea of not talking about it, just getting in the car and letting the white lines and the songs coming out of the speakers show you the answers. You'd be surprised the truth you can find in those things. Kenny wrote "The Road & The Radio" for himself and those friends of his who embrace the highway as the ultimate counsel, because he knows he's not the only one to wrestle his problems behind the wheel. Just as importantly, though, he looks a little deeper into the tug of seeking purpose in life in the starkly searching "Freedom" and the refuge easily overlooked "In a Small Town."

"It's amazing what you learn just through living," confesses the soft-spoken musician. "I moved away from that small town 'cause I hated it, 'cause I was after bigger dreams-and you don't realize who you really are or where you're from 'til you leave. Then the joke's on you 'cause that's where you end up in the end: the place you feel most normal-a small town."

"I think people realize that. I'm not so different from them, they hear it in the songs -- and I'm like their buddy. You know, it's not a bad way to make friends." For Kenny Chesney, of the nearly 8 million albums sold, the soon-to-be arena-sized headliner, the inevitable chart-climber, that's all cake. For him, it's about the guy in the baseball hat and the girl that guy thinks is pretty. Real life the double platinum boy, who finds his solace in the ocean, realizes doesn't always show up with the gilded edges and profound pronouncements -- you gotta find the truth as it rolls by with tan lines, an easy smile and a twinkle in its eye.

Sources: cmt.com, about.com, music.yahoo.com, gactv.com.