Kenny Chesney Credits ‘Left of Center’ Album Changes for GRAMMY Nomination

While Kenny Chesney is no stranger to winning awards, he remains grateful for his GRAMMY nomination for the 2018 show since it marks his first time he’s earned a GRAMMY nod on his own.

The singer appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday night (Dec. 18) to discuss his nomination as well as his hurricane relief efforts and the success that his music has garnered over the past year. Although Chesney kept a rather low profile by taking the summer off from tour and only performing a couple shows total in 2017, he definitely made as much as an impact as ever with his humanitarianism and his unique sound on his latest record.

As Meyers pondered what made Cosmic Hallelujah different than other projects that Chesney has worked on, the Tennessee native accredited it all back to making some changing decisions that weren’t his typical M.O.

“I think we just did a lot of things that was left of center than how we usually release a record,” Chesney explained. “I had a single, then we changed it. I had an album title, and we changed it. Cosmic Hallelujah wasn’t even the album title. We changed it.”

Meyers also got Chesney to admit to quite the embarrassing story that led the artist into songwriting. Trying to persuade a girl into dating him via recording a special song for her, Chesney ended up getting denied but still landed with a love for the craft of creating songs as a living.

The two guys then began to chat about all of the work Chesney put in to save his home away from home after his beloved islands were damaged immensely by the hurricanes during the fall.

“The Virgin Islands, the B.V.I.’s, the U.S.V.I.’s, has been a place that has really fed me as an individual over the years. It’s fed me as a human. It’s been a huge part of my adult life and it has been a really big source of creativeness—it’s fed me creativeness—it’s fed me emotionally and mentally. It’s been a healer,” Chesney said. “To see that storm sail go right over the island and I could know where my house is and I had 17 people inside my house going through the storm, and that was the most anxiety I’d ever felt in my life. It really was. I knew then that I was going to do something to help out and help the people and we started Love for Love City.”

Those who are interested in raising money for the Love for Love City Foundation can head over to Chesney’s website for more information.

During his visit to the late night show, Chesney also took the stage to perform the track “Jesus and Elvis” from his Cosmic Hallelujah album. Re-live his performance below.