Kenny Chesney was interviewed by Melissa Ziobro, director of curatorial affairs for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, on Dec. 3.
In the middle of his book tour for his memoir “Heart • Life • Music,” on Dec. 3, Kenny Chesney visited Monmouth University in West Long Branch. He toured the on-campus site where The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music is being built (it will open in spring 2026) and was interviewed by the Archives’ director of curatorial affairs, Melissa Ziobro, for her “Conversations With Our Curator” series. You can watch the nearly hour-long interview, below.
Naturally, the conversation turned to Springsteen quite a few times. Chesney talked, for instance, about his history with Springsteen song “One Step Up,” which he covered on his 2002 album, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (listen below), and about the time Springsteen came to see him perform at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.
His also talked about his emotional reaction to seeing “Springsteen on Broadway,” saying, in part:
He walked out there and sat at the piano and started playing the piano and started talking over the chord changes. And when he started to sing “My Hometown” … I literally wept because, in that moment, he validated everything of what it was like for me growing up. He validated my journey. He validated the love for my family. All of it just came up and I couldn’t believe it.
But within that, it was one of the first times that I actually realized the similarities (between me and him). But when Bruce is in the moment and he’s up there onstage … a lot like that moment I was talking about (previously in interview) where it’s almost you become somebody else, and he reminded me so much of Dick Baumgardner, who was my Baptist preacher in Union County, Tennessee, at Cedar Ford Baptist Church. When I was watching Bruce onstage, it was like he was a Baptist preacher, preaching the gospel to me. But it wasn’t gospel. I mean, it was the gospel of music and life and connection. It was unbelievable. And it was very emotional. Very emotional.
But I don’t have that talking voice like Bruce has. You know what I mean? Like when he when he gets going, he’s sweating. I was just waiting any moment for him to pull a snake out of his pocket, you know, like a snake handler. But it really touched me and I went, “Oh my god.” I mean, I just couldn’t help it. I sincerely wept.
Ziobro wrote about the interview on the Archives’ website, HERE. She ends her piece by writing:
We often try to divide music into tidy boxes: country here, rock over there, Jersey Shore on one shelf and Nashville on another. But the artists themselves have never lived that way. Bruce drew from folk and gospel; Kenny grew up on country, then in college became more exposed to rock. Both have spent careers honoring the musicians who came before them. Whether it’s country, rock, folk, soul, or anything in between, our mission at the BSACAM is to document how artists learn from — and inspire — one another, and us.
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