For years, Kenny Chesney had one consistent answer when asked about writing a book: no. He said it more than once, publicly, and meant it. Then on February 6, 2025, he sat down on CBS Mornings and reversed every word of it.
That morning, Chesney announced Heart Life Music — his debut book, co-written with journalist Holly Gleason. It released November 4, 2025. By November 13, it was sitting at #1 on both the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction and Combined Print and E-Book Nonfiction bestseller lists.
Table of Contents
The Announcement: What Chesney Said and Why He Changed His Mind
Chesney chose CBS Mornings, the same program where he had announced his Las Vegas Sphere residency earlier that year, to break the news of the book.
From the start, he was deliberate about how Heart Life Music would be described. On TODAY with Craig Melvin, he called it “snapshots of my journey, vignettes within my soul” rather than a traditional memoir. His CBS framing was equally specific: “very intimate postcards, if you will, of my life in this business, on the road, in the islands.”
His stated reason for finally doing it came down to the people who had been there for the whole ride.
“It is almost a love letter to people who shaped and inspired me — the fans who’ve been there from tiny bars, radio stations who believed when nobody else did, a team who just kept coming back, legends who gave me wisdom and opportunities and all the friends who’ve been there along the way.”
He partnered with Holly Gleason, a music journalist whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Library of Congress’ National Registry of Sound Recordings. Gleason previously co-authored Miranda Lambert’s NYT bestseller Y’All Eat Yet and received the NSAI “I Wish I Wrote That Song” Award — for Chesney’s own “Better As a Memory.” The two had a long professional relationship before the book came together.
What Heart Life Music Actually Covers
Rather than a straight-line biography, the book reads more like a collection of vivid scenes. It opens in East Tennessee, where Chesney grew up, and moves through his time at East Tennessee State University under mentor Jack Tottle before landing in Nashville in January 1991.
From there, the stories span decades:
- Recording at Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica with the Wailers’ own rhythm section — Aston “Family Man” Barrett and Alvin “Seeco” Patterson
- A private plane ride with George Jones after opening for him early in his career
- Sean Payton calling an NFL press conference specifically to “draft” him to the New Orleans Saints
- Writing rooms with Dean Dillon as a young songwriter still finding his footing in Nashville
- Years spent in the Caribbean building the island-life identity No Shoes Nation made their own
- Friendships with Jimmy Buffett, Eddie Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, and Sammy Hagar
- Collaborations with Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Grace Potter, Uncle Kracker, and Ziggy Marley
Chesney also narrated the audiobook himself, spending far more time on it than he had planned.
“With the audiobook taking so long to record, because I wanted to get it right — and I didn’t want someone else to tell my story.”
Why the Timing of This Book Mattered
The Kenny Chesney memoir announcement did not arrive in a quiet period. It came at the center of what became the most significant year of a career that now spans more than three decades.
March 25, 2025 — The Country Music Hall of Fame named Chesney its Modern Era Artist inductee for the Class of 2025, alongside the late June Carter Cash and producer Tony Brown. The formal Medallion Ceremony followed on October 19 at Nashville’s CMA Theater, where Kelsea Ballerini performed “Somewhere With You” and Eric Church played a medley of “I Go Back,” “Anything But Mine,” and “The Boys of Fall.” Chesney was inducted by music executive Joe Galante, who called him “a songwriter, a storyteller at heart.”
Chesney’s own words that night:
“Walking into that rotunda and taking that group shot with a lot of my heroes and a lot of my friends — it was the first time that I ever felt accomplished in my life.”
May 22 through June 21, 2025 — Chesney completed a 15-night residency at the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, becoming the first country artist ever to headline the venue, following U2, Phish, Dead and Company, and the Eagles. Billboard confirmed he is the only country artist to surpass $1 billion in concert grosses reported to Boxscore. Pollstar placed him in its Top 10 Touring Artists of the Millennium — the only country act on that list.
Sixteen days after the Medallion Ceremony, Heart Life Music was in stores.
The Reception: Newsweek Cover, Major TV, and a NYT #1
On release day, Chesney appeared on TODAY with both Craig Melvin and Jenna Bush Hager, CBS Mornings with Gayle King, Anderson Cooper 360, and The View. Newsweek put him on its cover with the headline “Keeping It Real: Kenny Chesney Stays True To His Roots” — part of an extended interview with editor-in-chief Jennifer H. Cunningham for the magazine’s “Newsmakers” multimedia series.
“Me? On the cover of Newsweek magazine?” Chesney said. “Newsweek covers diplomats, business leaders, scientists and doctors, people who save lives. I live to make people happy.”
Critical reception from major outlets:
| Outlet | Response |
|---|---|
| Wall Street Journal | “An emphatic success” (My Monday Morning series) |
| Billboard | “Once you pick it up, you won’t be putting it down anytime soon” |
| People | “Chesney’s truest love is creating music” |
| Travel + Leisure | “A genuine meditation on connection and purpose” |
| Publishers Weekly | “One for the Road” |
| Garden & Gun | “A meditation on the power of music and creativity” |
Barnes & Noble named Heart Life Music to their Best Memoir/Biography List for 2025, placing it alongside books by Paul McCartney, Michelle Obama, Ozzy Osbourne, Malala Yousafzai, and Anthony Bourdain.
When the NYT number came through, Chesney said the news took a minute to sink in:
“Talk about the unthinkable. I had a New York Times No. 1 best seller that came out of a life lived with my grandparents, mom, friends growing up, everybody out on the road, all my sports heroes and friends, my years in the islands and a whole lot of music.”
Where Things Stand in 2026
Chesney returns to the Sphere in Las Vegas for a second residency across June and July 2026, with new visuals, refreshed content, and different songs woven throughout. Heart Life Music is still available in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook.
The man who spent years saying a country music memoir was never on his to-do list ended 2025 as a New York Times number one author, a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, and the first country artist to headline one of the most technically advanced venues ever built. The announcement was just the beginning of what turned out to be a remarkable run.
Heart Life Music by Kenny Chesney and Holly Gleason is published by HarperCollins.
