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
Charlie Sheen updates on relationship with old pal Jon Cryer
Charlie Sheen has admitted he still hasn’t reached out to his Two and a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer despite repeatedly saying he intends to, and took a playful swipe at his old friend for being “a little grudgy” more than a decade after their famous falling-out.
Sheen was speaking at a For Your Consideration event for the Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen in Los Angeles on 22 April, where he was asked about reconnecting with Cryer, who also participated in the film.
“Every time this comes up, I say I’m going to [reach out to him] and I never do,” he told PEOPLE. “I don’t like to bother people. But I think Jon would be open to that. Jon’s a lovely man and a very talented guy.”
During the panel portion of the evening, Sheen couldn’t resist a gentle jab at Cryer’s absence.
“Jon’s not here tonight, is he? No, he’s a little grudgy like a decade and a half later. I’m like, ‘Dude, what the f—? I got over it. What are we doing, Jon?'”
He quickly softened, expressing genuine appreciation for everyone who agreed to participate.
“They could have easily said, ‘Go f— yourself. I’m not interested. I lived it. I don’t need to talk about it again.’ And I would have been, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ But they didn’t, and they stepped up.”
The documentary and Sheen’s memoir The Book of Sheen both landed in the same week in September 2025, with Sheen describing the experience of finally documenting his story as a relief.
“It’s documented, and I think told beautifully, visually and, hopefully, decently. There’s stuff in the book that’s not in the doc and vice versa, because there are things I couldn’t capture with the written word that [director Andrew Renzi] did visually, because some things you just have to see to feel it.”
He also recalled being uncertain about taking part at first, until Renzi laid out his case.
“He said, ‘Because you have a story that is unlike anyone who’s ever just in the business, but also outside of it.’ And then he went through listing stuff, and I’m like, alright, OK.”
Renzi put it plainly: “There’s only one Charlie Sheen… and there’s just not many people that would have had the life that he had that would want to talk about it, or are alive to talk about it.”
Sheen, who has been sober for eight years, said he would not have taken on either project while still in the grip of addiction.
“I think it always sort of had a happy ending attached to it, regardless of where the story went.”
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.”
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