Eric Church putting on his journalist cap. It’s no secret that the Chief is a prolific writer. Just thumb through any album in his catalogue and you’ll find plenty of clever wordplay and profound thoughts hidden behind the thumping of country music. But if you had any doubt of Church’s writing ability (and I don’t know why you would), the country music star can now say he’s a published writer over at the Knoxville News Sentinel. Church sent over a statement about his good friend Kenny Chesney that ended up being turned into a full-blown article. As you’ve probably heard, Chesney was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame back in October. The 57-year-old responsible for hits such as “When The Sun Goes Down” and “Summertime” was grateful to be added to the esteemed list of country music artists, and his induction just so happened to coincide with the release of his book Heart Life Music. The book, written by Holly Gleason and Kenny Chesney himself, explored the country music icon’s entire journey, from his early days in Knoxville to his current days headlining shows at the Las Vegas Sphere. It’s certainly been a heck of a ride for Kenny Chesney, and his way of doing things certainly inspired other artists to chase their own dreams. Just ask Eric Church. Though this excerpt wasn’t included in Chesney’s book, it’s a testament to the impact that the “Somewhere With You” singer has had on his country music colleagues. Eric Church’s “statement” to the Knoxville News Sentinel began with an anecdote from the first time that the Chief shared the same space with Kenny Chesney – before Chesney was a superstar, and prior to Eric even being a country music artist: “My first encounter with the Pirate was in Clemson, South Carolina, at the George Strait music festival. Seven to eight acts. Massive stadium. Except I wasn’t on the bill. I was in the crowd. Kenny was still on the climb, and he played a couple acts in front of ‘King George.’ I got there under a hot Carolina sun and settled into my seat with some buddies, maybe a Tiger Woods 7 iron from the stage. Grabbed a beer, maybe two, maintaining proper pacing, for an expected peak about the time the King took the spotlight… I saw flags. Beach balls. The whole place started to break every alcohol pacing boundary I had naively set for us. I looked at my buddy, and said, ‘What’s happening? Who is this next guy?’ When Kenny got to his latest single, ‘How Forever Feels,’ I had my answer. He was the best thing I saw that day, and what was happening would change music history for us all. Like a musical crystal ball, I had seen the future.” Eric Church went on to say how intoxicating Kenny Chesney’s performance was, and how impactful it was to his own career. The Chief shared that his second Kenny Chesney show, he was opening for the “Pirate” himself and was once again blown away by Chesney’s attention to detail, and his dedication to his fans. Church witnessed Kenny Chesney working on a video montage that was made up of years and years worth of footage of fans at his concerts. Eric was blown away that Chesney was making the show about the people out in the audience, and that’s what has stuck with him across decades: “We’ve all seen the big star on the big stage in our lives, but the bigger opportunity is where you can make it about the smallest among us. Kenny never lost sight of that. Because, simply, he is one of them. Like all of us, he’s a dreamer. But he understands all too well that life is made up of more broken dreams than built ones. It’s the unbreakable in our shared human spirit that keeps us chasing, striving, grinding for that perfect moment when, with 60,000 people, we share all that emotion together.” All in all, the story published to the Knoxville News Sentinel – the famous birthplace of Kenny Chesney – was an emotional tribute to the artist that single handedly created “No Shoes Nation,” with a little help from his thousands of fans. And to read the story that Eric Church penned is to understand just how much Chesney means to him, and to a whole lot of other artists and fans all across the world. Hear Kenny and Eric together on “When I See This Bar,” recorded live back in 2013 from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The post Eric Church Recalls Being Blown Away At His First Kenny Chesney Concert: “I Had Seen The Future” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.