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Kenny Chesney “Hated” His Hit Song “Don’t Blink” And Didn’t Even Want To Use It As A Single: “This Is Going To Be The End Of Everything”
Forever one of Kenny Chesney’s best songs.
Chesney released his beautiful song “Don’t Blink” in 2007 as the second single from his Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates album, and it went onto become his 13th #1 hit on the country charts later that year.
Written by Casey Beathard and Chris Wallin, the song tells the story from the perspective of someone watching an interview of a 102-year-old man who is talking about life and how to live it well.
Of course, the main message it to just enjoy every day and “don’t blink,” because it all goes by so fast and even 100 years really isn’t as long as it sounds.
I think it’s one that many fans point to as a favorite in Chesney’s catalog, because it’s such an incredibly relatable topic no matter what age you are, and I remember loving this song as a kid even though I really had no idea what it actually meant… don’t I wish that was still the case.
But you might be surprised to learn that Chesney didn’t even want to record it, much less put it out as a single. During a 2023 interview with Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton at CRS (Country Radio Seminar), he recalled “hating” the song at first, and he felt like the subject matter would turn people off, rather than resonate as deeply as it did.
Though he eventually changed his mind about it, after telling his team it would never work, when they went to do radio interviews to promote the song and a woman at the front desk at one of the stations told her she “loved” it. It was in that moment he realized there was something more to it, and it actually push his career forward:
“When we released that song… I hated it. I felt like it just touched every button you could possibly touch to get somebody to like a song and I hated it. We were at ABC Radio Networks in Dallas, and we were on the plane there, and I was in Joe’s ear the who two-hour ride about how much I hated this single choice.
‘It’s never gonna work, this is going to be the end of everything. I’ve worked really hard to be here and you’re gonna cut my legs off with ‘Don’t Blink.” I did my interviews and we are coming down the escalators and the lady at the front desk tells me, ‘I just love ‘Don’t Blink’!’ I looked at Galante and said, ‘You told her to say that.’”
Fortunately, he was incredibly wrong, and I’m sure he changed his tune about it pretty quickly when it shot to the top of the country charts.
It’s remained a timeless reminder to cherish life and enjoy every day, because we all know all too well how fast it really goes by.
Going to have this stuck in my head for the rest of the day now…
“Don’t Blink”
The post Kenny Chesney “Hated” His Hit Song “Don’t Blink” And Didn’t Even Want To Use It As A Single: “This Is Going To Be The End Of Everything” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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