Entertainment
Book excerpt: “Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason
William Morrow
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Over the past three decades, Kenny Chesney has been one of the most celebrated singers in music. In his first book, “Heart Life Music” (written with journalist Holly Gleason, to be published Tuesday by William Morrow), Chesney recounts his life’s journey, from East Tennessee, to No Shoes Nation and beyond.
Read an excerpt below, in which he writes about a soulful collaboration with singer-songwriter Grace Potter – and don’t miss Lee Cowan’s interview with Kenny Chesney on “CBS Sunday Morning” October 26!
“Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason
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Grace
There was a show on tv called “Let’s Make A Deal.” People would be contestants, hoping host Monty Hall would pick them to compete for prizes. New cars, new kitchens with all the appliances, expensive watches. You had to pick.
One of two things: color tvs and washer/dryer sets, or what was behind Door No. 3, knowing it could be a wheelbarrow with some grass seed, or a new car.
I’ve always been attracted to what’s behind Door No. 3. That idea of the big unknown you can’t see always appealed to me. The seeker inside has chased the unknown all my life.
When you’re a dreamer, you can’t not take Door No. 3. That mentality fuels you. Seeking inspiration, wanting to find out has risk involved. Some Door No. 3s don’t work out. But Grace Potter? She’s the epitome of why Door No. 3 is always better than playing it safe.
“You & Tequila” showed up in my email in the middle of the night.
I remember listening, thinking, “Damn…,”
That idea of a person you can’t quit, because they’re so addictive is real. You can’t resist, only overdo it to the point of poisoning yourself hit me. I called Matraca Berg, asked if there was a demo with a man singing it; she had one. Hearing Tim Krekel sing it hit me even harder.
We cut it really simple. That pull between what you want and knowing you shouldn’t made “You & Tequila” burn into people.
We were about done with Hemingway’s Whiskey. I wanted something to make it shine. Buddy Cannon and I were talking about who might sound good; Clint Higham, my co-manager, even reached out to Irving Azoff about the Eagles, since this sounded like a classic Laurel Canyon song.
Then the woman who sent me the demo asked, “Why don’t you get Grace Potter? She captures that haunted and haunting feeling.”
What makes Grace Potter, the ultimate Door No. 3, was the mystery. The hippie songwriter/rock girl.
Once she was suggested, as much as it made no sense on paper, I knew she was the person we needed.
I listen to a lot of music at night in the Virgin Islands. No light pollution, you can drift in the sounds. I’d been given Grace’s live CD. “Apologies” poured out of the speakers.
Motionless on a chaise lounge, when I heard Grace’s voice – so soulful, but beautiful and real – I was floored. Nobody in my life had heard this voice except my friend. I felt blessed.
She wrote her own songs. She had a band, wasn’t overproduced. Really listening, it was how she played that B-3 organ, but especially how she sang those songs.
I looked up at the sky and exhaled. She sounded like coming home.
When we put her on “You & Tequila,” all she knew about me was “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” because the Eagle in Burlington, Vermont had played it to death.
Was it even possible? Grace had finished a European tour, traveled 24 hours with no sleep and was landing in America. We laugh now, but she listened to the demo on the rental car shuttle having cleared customs.
She was tired. She missed her family. And we needed her in Nashville within 48 hours to make the deadline for mastering – or we’d have to move the record. Her manager wasn’t optimistic. My friend insisted, “Give her the song.”
Thirty minutes later, we had a yes. Thirty hours later, Grace Potter landed in Nashville in a flowy leopard print dress, walked into Blackbird Recording Studios and changed both of our lives. Brash, smart and funny, she oozed music. She told wild stories, made some people blush and asked us what we were thinking.
Buddy suggested, “Get in the booth and put your headphones on. See how it feels to you.”
Probably warming up, she was humming. Then that “ooooohOOOOOHohhhh” she does on the record rolled out.
“Do some more of that.”
Two or three takes later, we were done. We’d talked longer than she was in the vocal booth. Even before it was mixed, we knew it was something. That’s the thing: you know.
It was my birthday. I asked her and her boyfriend if they’d like to have dinner. We went to Sunset Grille, sat outside on the patio and laughed. We came from musically different places; her country music was Willie, Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams. But we were of the same heart, same small town, family-oriented life.
She was tired, so we didn’t hang long. When I got up to leave, she followed me, jumped in the passenger seat of my car, and announced, “I don’t know what the future holds, but we’re going to be friends for life.”
Grace Potter knew things. I’ve always believed there are things in our lives that were pre-determined; set into motion by some larger power. Grace was absolutely one.
From “Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason. Copyright © 2025 by Kenny Chesney. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
To hear Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter perform “You and Tequila,” click on the video player below:
Get the book here:
“Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason
Buy locally from Bookshop.org
For more info:
- “Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason (William Morrow), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available Nov. 4
- kennychesney.com
Entertainment
Here’s real update on POTUS’s health
In a recent White House meeting, U.S. President Trump momentarily dozed off .
The incident sparked speculations about the 79-year-old president’s health, with a prominent medical expert indicating the symptoms may point to sleep apnea.
This video, which was recorded at the affordability event at the Oval Office on Thursday, displays Trump sitting with his eyes shut, jaw hanging loose, and head slumped down. Even though there have been no medical warnings made by the White House, it has generated a lot of discussions on social media.
A medical expert, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of Medicine and Surgery linked with CNN, weighed in on the matters.
Reiner wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “When a patient tells me that they can’t stay awake in meetings, we do formal sleep testing to look for sleep apnea.”
“The president continues to struggle with daytime somnolence. This is a common problem, and there are things that can be done to improve these symptoms,” he added.
In medical terms, sleep apnea is a condition where the patient suffers from a pattern of interruptions in breathing while sleeping.
The White House does not acknowledge any such medical condition, and President Trump has not yet had an officially scheduled annual physical examination in 2026, although he has been known to undergo semiannual physical exams. It has been observed that President Trump, who is turning 80 in June, holds fewer public meetings than he did in his first presidential term.
Concerning the POTUS ‘health, Congressman Ted Lieu said: “There’s something mentally wrong with the President of the United States. There is also something physically wrong… he can’t stay awake at public events with the cameras rolling.”
However, White House has maintained the stance of Trump’s good health. Until now, no official medical evaluation has been released.
Given these rising concerns, another video of Trump is circulating where he can be seen falling asleep and violently hitting his head on the desk. However, that specific video is fake and AI-generated.
Entertainment
Offset teases new album plans after recent shooting accident
Offset is coming back stronger after his shooting accident which altered his plans, but he still showed up – even taking the stage on a wheelchair.
The 34-year-old rapper spoke about his recovery and accident in a new interview, sharing how he kept his morale up and continued pushing himself.
“You’ve got to keep pushing like the Energizer Bunny, man. Keep this s— pushing. Don’t got time to be slowing down.” Offset told the Creators Inc. Podcast on Thursday, March 23.
Speaking about his performance mid-recovery, the Annihilate hitmaker noted, “You got to go G6 — G5, sorry. Had them bring the bed out, lay on that thing for six hours, go to sleep. You cool.”
The rapper also hinted at his new album in the same interview, saying, “I’m trying to drop soon. Couple months from now. I don’t got no date yet, but getting the creative and all s— to go together. Removing songs, making new songs, just off life because all my s— always be off of life experiences. You know what I mean? What happens in my real life, I just put it in my music.”
Despite the Florida accident, Offset shared that he maintains a “gladiator mentality” which motivates him to push forward instead of being held down by such incidents.
“The show don’t ever stop at the end of the day. I was blessed enough to be able to still move, you know what I mean? So, I’m still moving. I didn’t really have a checklist for it,” he said.
The Open It Up singer added, “I don’t want nobody feel sorry for me or no s— like that. People get shot every day, bro, like, I’m blessed. I can keep pushing, so why would I just sit down? I got to keep pushing. I got to keep going.”
Entertainment
Rob and Michele Reiner’s son, Jake, speaks out about his parents’ deaths: “My world, as I knew it, had collapsed”
Jake Reiner, son of Rob and Michele Reiner, spoke out on Friday for the first time since his parents were brutally killed in their Los Angeles home in December, detailing the moment he learned what happened.
In a post to Substack, Jake said he was at the celebration of life for one of his best friends when his sister, Romy, called to tell him that their father was dead. Moments later, he wrote, he found out his mother was also killed.
“My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance,” Jake said. “The only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.”
He said he then took a rideshare service from the funeral in downtown to his family’s Brentwood home, which he called “unendurable.”
“Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,” he wrote. “It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.”
Rob and Michele were found dead with stab wounds on Dec. 14. Shortly after, their son, Nick, was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Nick was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree in a Los Angeles courtroom in February. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Rob Reiner, director of iconic films such as “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally…” was 78. Michele Singer Reiner, an accomplished photographer and film producer, was 70.
Jake then wrote about his grief and described his relationship with his parents. He only alluded to his brother, not mentioning his name, at the end of the more than 1,600-word post.
“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” Jake wrote. “Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process. I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.”
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