Kenny Chesney Eyes Vegas Shows Before Trip Around the Sun Tour

Kenny Chesney planned to come back to his summer stadium tour with a bang after taking most of last year off, but he couldn’t kick it off in the right manner without getting a little bit of Vegas fever in his bones first.

Although the country singer plans to open up his Trip Around the Sun Tour in the bright Florida city of Tampa, he wanted to host an epic dress rehearsal for what’s to come by playing in Sin City. Chesney set his sights on the Nevada town after feeling the energy buzzing from miles away and thought of no better way to start his year off than to gamble it all in Vegas with his fans.

“Some years, we do the Keg in the Closet at a lot of the college bars in SEC towns,” Chesney said of the show. “Some years, we do the Keg in the Keys. But this year, I thought we should do something different. Rather than the last-minute announce and scramble, go ahead and set the dates, and announce them early. We’ve had such a great relationship with The Joint, that room puts everybody right in the heart of the show — and there’s so much great rock & roll history at the Hard Rock, I thought it would be a great place to kick off the year.”

He couldn’t stand waiting around any longer for the summer months to wave through, so he thought a little spring fun could jump start the mood especially with the spirit of Vegas drifting through the No Shoes Nation base.

“A year without playing makes me want to get out there and I’ve been thinking about the tour, what we’re going to do for months. But even more than what’s on the screens, or how we’re going to do the sound and lighting this year, the idea of getting to hear the No Shoes Nation sing these songs drives me to do all of this… and so rather than waiting for Tampa, we’re going to Vegas for a little party,” Chesney admitted.

Chesney will host his shows at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas on March 16 and 17.