Kenny Chesney recalls “snapping” and punching a fan when the man physically picked him up on stage during a concert with Joe Walsh.
On Wednesday, Chesney was a guest on “The Howard Stern Show” and told the story of the time he had to get physical with a fan.
Chesney didn’t specify when the interaction occurred, but the star performed with Walsh in 2007 on his “Flip Flop Summer Tour” and on “The Big Revival Tour” in 2015.
“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—that kind of thing,” Chesney told Stern.
The country star continued, “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 out the peripheral and walking to the stage.”
Chesney said the fan “buckled down” as he approached him.
“[He] picks me up with his arms right at my knees and holds me up. And I just snapped, and I just I hit him right in the mouth,” Chesney admitted.
Chesney told Stern that the thoughts crossing his mind in that moment was that the man was going to sue him.
“This is going to cost me every penny that I made tonight,” he said.
Chesney recalled talking to Walsh about the altercation after the show.
“We’re backstage after the show and Joe’s on the bus…So, I said, ‘Joe, did 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 have asked him to take me to the stage,'” Chesney said.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Chesney talked to Stern about bringing Jimmy Buffett’s ashes on stage while the star was posthumously inducted into the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Chesney said he and guitarist Mac McAnally snuck Buffett’s ashes into the ceremony while they performed and honored him.
“We were sitting back there warming up, trying to figure out our parts and stuff, and Mac comes up to me and he goes, ‘Look at this,’ and it was a small urn. He had Jimmy’s ashes in his coat pocket.”
“So Jimmy’s ashes were in Mac McAnally’s coat pocket onstage with us as he was getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Chesney said.
Chesney explained that Buffett’s daughter, Savannah Buffett, gave McAnally the ashes prior to their performance.
“So even after he passed, Jimmy found a way to join the party,” Chesney concluded.
Buffet died at age 76 on Sept. 1, 2023 from a rare form of skin cancer.
