Kenny Chesney Reflects on How the Virgin Islands Became a Refuge: “A Place I Could Disappear”

In his new book, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, Kenny Chesney shares a fascinating insight into how the Virgin Islands blossomed into a safe haven of sorts during a period where he was looking to escape from the intense glare of celebrity fanfare and speculation.

As Chesney's star-power increased and he amassed an increasingly impressive catalogue of hits, the more he yearned for somewhere he could truly switch off. Particularly as he was working on his game-changing No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems and Be As You Are records, Chesney spent more and more time in the sun-soaked islands.

In his book, the ‘I Go Back’ hitmaker explains how, despite amassing a growing fanbase and a reputation as a neo-traditional chart-topper, Chesney had never wanted to go down the classic country route. He longed to forge a career that felt truly authentic to him, rather than singing songs he thought George Strait would want to cut.

As he explains in his book, visiting the Virgin Islands - in particular, St. John and St. Thomas - gave him a new lease of life, and a rejuvenated sense of creative expression.

In HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, written with Holly Gleason, Chesney writes, “I was in my thirties, but we were all on the brink of becoming who we were supposed to be. We were alive to life, in awe of how much we all loved one another and what we shared. It wasn't about status, what you had or what you were seeking, it was about being together”.

The ‘Just To Say We Did’ singer-songwriter goes on, “I'd never been anywhere much beyond Key West. Now I was hanging on an island that was protected by the National Park Service. There are wild donkeys, abandoned sugarcane factories, small churches, and an innocence that showed me what I needed was to be who I was”.

The vibrant colours and sunny, laid-back spirit that Chesney encountered on the Virgin Islands would later become the cornerstone of the Knoxville native's music. Now, of course, Chesney is synonymous with his penchant for bright, island-inspired anthems.

While No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems introduced his beachside meditations for the first time, while still incorporating sounds that were palatable for traditional-country aficionados, Be As You Are served as a more whole-hearted departure for Chesney.

It's an immersive journey through Chesney's various island encounters and friendships, with the Tropical Country trailblazer regaling listeners with vignettes of Sherry, a local bartender who is eschewing the confines of an education and a career-ladder in favour of a life spent in the sun, and our nameless ‘Island Boy’, a former Maine resident who now laughs at his friends back home in the snow.

Chesney muses, “As things picked up, as life started to take on a momentum I couldn't have imagined, the island remained a place I could disappear. Before cell phone cameras and social media, we had the ability to run wild, laugh, and drink, carry on and get carried away. It's why every time I got off the road, even if it was three or four days between shows, I would fly down and Ben and Bob picked me up in the boat”.

The endearingly explains how, aside from the more obvious appeal of the weather, the anonymity and the seclusion, more than anything, the reason Chesney fell in love with the Virgin Islands is they offered him a place where he could be himself.

The five-time CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year outlines, “To feel so safe, so accepted, you can face anything. It's how I was able to figure out without quite knowing what the next phrase of my life was going to require. It was there I learned to be as you are”.

You can't help but feel the evocative lyrics of ‘Island Boy’ resonate with Chesney's own story, “Got the courage to follow his heart / Set out for a brand new start / He's an island boy / Now he's an island boy / Livin’ his life where stress is the enemy”.

Given how Chesney has had to navigate a relatively persistent barrage of conjecture throughout his career, with fans continually fascinated by his private life, it's no surprise that he needs a safe space where he can simply exist as he is and wants to be.

The everyone-is-welcome cri-de-coeur of ‘Be As You Are’ encapsulates the Virgin Islands’ allure for Chesney: “Play my guitar in the Caribbean sun / Hang with the locals at the Quiet Mon / Where you can be a tourist / A beach bum or a star / And be as you are”.

It's this all-loving outlook that has helped to make Chesney's No Shoes Nation fanbase such a warm, welcoming community, where our oddities and quirks are celebrated, rather than criticised. It serves as an extension of Chesney's music, particularly this seminal Be As You Are record, where the poets, pirates, outlaws and ramblers can all come together to toast this wonderfully weird life we all get to enjoy together.

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