Kenny Chesney Drops ‘American Kids’ Video, Declares ‘The Big Revival’
It’s classic Kenny Chesney: there’s sun, sand, water, pretty women… But “American Kids” is more like Kenny Chesney 2.0. The country superstar debuted the new video for his feel-good new single today, which shows a more free-spirited side than ever before.
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“We were teenage dreamin/Front seat leanin’/Baby, come give me a kiss/Put me on the cover of the Rolling Stone/Uptown, down home American kids,” he sings in the chorus, while strumming his guitar in the Southern California desert, joined by a group of similarly carefree people and a colorful old bus that looks like it might have traveled to Woodstock back in the day.
“The spirit of this thing — the song, the bus, the idea of the kids riding around, having fun, playing music and just celebrating life — makes you want to get involved,” Chesney tells ET. “Fun is where and how you make it. Out in the sun with a bunch of friends — and the people who work on my videos have been making them with me for more than a decade — even buckets of paint and a bus that needs to be covered can give you a reason to have fun.”
“American Kids” is the first single from the singer’s upcoming album, The Big Revival, due out September 23rd. Chesney has been hitting the grind particularly hard on this, his 16th studio album, as he’s been in the studio working since October and even parked his tour bus this year to focus on making new music.
“The whole point of taking the time to get to a really creative place was to have the room to look at not what we’d done, but where we wanted to go,” he explains. “After all this time, if I can’t push myself and give the fans something that inspires them, that gets them pumped up, there’s no reason to just make a record to make a record.”
Co-produced with longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon, The Big Revival will feature guest appearances by Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski and Grace Potter. The overall sound of the album is described as “more aggressive,” while its lyrics pay homage to Chesney’s diverse fan base.
“There’s so much more to country than trucks, creek beds and cut-offs,” he says with a laugh. “That stuff is fun, but when you look at how people really dig in and work, the things they face every day, you wanna remind ’em how hardcore they really are… and also show ’em that you know there’s more to ’em than people might think.”