Kenny Chesney Once Punched A Fan Who Picked Him Up While He Was Walking To The Stage: “Gonna Cost Me Every Penny I Made Tonight”

I mean, if you jump onstage without an invitation, you get what you get…

Today, Kenny Chesney is the guest on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, where he talked about his new memoir “Heart Life Music,” in addition to performing “You and Tequila,” and he also talked about his first ever real rejection that gave him just a taste of what it’s like in the music industry.

And he recalled a very specific show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Steelers stadium in 2007, where he was joined by Eagles legend Joe Walsh, who joined him as a guest playing guitar that summer.

Chesney recalled:

“Joe Walsh had decided that he was gonna come out and play with us. He was in the band for a minute, but he wasn’t on the show. He would just show up and sit in with the band during the show.”

Stern remarked on how much Walsh must’ve enjoyed that, which led him to tell the story about the Pittsburgh show, where he entered the show coming from the middle of the stadium, walking through the crowd to get to the stage:

“Oh, are you kidding me? So, all of a sudden, here we are, and Joe’s up there playing, we were in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was playing the Steelers football stadium, and I thought it was cool to come up in the middle of the stadium and almost like a boxer in a way, like walk through the crowd to the stage to, you know…”

Chesney explained that security got way ahead of him during this part, and he was left by himself. As he made his way up to the stage, he saw a man out of his peripheral, who decided to pick Chesney up.

Well, because he was left by himself by security, he had to take matters into his own hands, quite literally, and he says he “snapped” and “hit him right in the mouth”:

“Yeah. That kind of s***, but the security got way ahead of me, and all of a sudden I’m by myself on my way to the stage, and I see this guy coming. I can just see him in the peripheral and walking to the stage and the closer I get to him, I mean, he buckles down and picks me up with his arms right at my knees and holds me up and I just, I snapped and I hit him right in the mouth.

Now, this is first song going to the stage. I’m not even on stage yet and I hit this guy, and the whole time I’m up there on stage, I’m going, ‘This is gonna cost me every penny that I’ve made tonight.'”

I don’t think I would call that “snapping” if a random person grabs you and picks you up… I think he probably had the right reaction. But Chesney was afraid he did the wrong thing, and asked Walsh what eh would’ve done in that situation, and his answer is priceless:

“So we’re backstage after the show, and Joe’s on the bus, and Joe’s one of the only few people that talks just like he sings, you know?

‘Okay, Kenny,’ so I said, ‘Joe, do you see what happened at the beginning of the show?’ and he said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Well, what would you do if somebody had picked you up like that?” He goes, ‘I would’ve asked him to take me to the stage.'”

Classic…

Every now and then, a random fan will manage to sneak onstage, and I imagine it can be pretty scary as artist because you really have no idea what their intentions are. So be warned, Kenny has some quick reflexes and he doesn’t mess around…

You can watch the clip here:

The post Kenny Chesney Once Punched A Fan Who Picked Him Up While He Was Walking To The Stage: “Gonna Cost Me Every Penny I Made Tonight” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.