Jeremy Siegel: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Nobody has played Gillette Stadium more than Kenny Chesney. The country music star has a massive Boston fan base, and nearly two decades ago, he was the first ever stadium show at the home of the Patriots. This weekend, he takes the stage for the 24th time with three sold out nights in Foxboro. I spoke to two people, a journalist and a country music radio host, about Chesney’s unique relationship with New England and his unlikely friendship with the owner of the Patriots and Gillette, Robert Kraft.

Kenny Chesney [on stage, previously recorded]: Let me hear you. She wears a —

Crowd: Red Sox cap / To hide her baby dreads

Carolyn Kruse: Hi, I’m Carolyn Kruse, midday host at country 102.5 for the past 31 years.

Chesney: She flirts and tells...

Kruse: I think all country artists in general are surprised at the reaction they get here in the New England area. We have super-passionate fans and as Kenny said, one of the first times I asked him why the love affair with Boston, he said it’s because he relates to audiences here, the passion of music, of sports, of just everything.

Chesney: New England is the only place we will ever do that song.

Kruse: We were one of the first stations in the country that played a Kenny Chesney song, and that was "Fall in Love." That was like 1995-96. He always chooses Gillette Stadium to be the last in his tour, and it originally started as one night and then it moved to two nights. And this year is the first time it is three nights.

Chesney: Summertime is finally here. That old ballpark, man, is back in gear

Ronnie Ramos: You get this country mega superstar from Tennessee and this, you know, stadium and football team owner in Boston. And how did the two of them meet and get along? I’m Ronnie Ramos, executive editor of MassLive. I think there’s a little bit of, novelty because, you know, acts don’t do a lot of stadium shows back then. Now they’re commonplace. But back then there weren’t a lot of people doing stadium shows. And so the fact that, you know, we got a country music star playing in Boston to a lot of people that might have thought a little weird, but he had built up quite a following from playing over at Mansfield for several years before. And this was sort of the first time, it was a big step to try and play something at that size, and it’s sold out, and he’s been coming back ever since.

Kruse: I mean, in 2012, he dubbed No Shoes Nation his fan club, No Shoes Nation at Gillette Stadium, and he felt like that was a fitting place for it. So there’s always been this connection and it just continues to get bigger. I enjoy talking to him very much. I had him live at the station. I think it was 2018 for an hour with an audience. Welcome to Kenny 102.5 day. This is Kenny Chesney.

Chesney: You know, the moment that our buses and trucks pull up to Foxboro at the end of a tour, it’s like, okay, everything is wonderful now, you know, because you go through a lot of ups and downs, you know, throughout the summer. And it’s something that we all look really forward to.

Kruse: He loves talking about the Krafts, Gillette Stadium, his connection with everyone there, the New England Patriots. I asked him once if they gave him a ring. He said to me, I’m not allowed to talk about that.

Ramos: Bob Kraft talked about Kenny. I mean, Bob said that he considered Kenny an extended member of his family. By the end of Sunday, they’ll be at close to 1.3 million tickets sold to Gillette for Kenny Chesney concerts, which is twice the population of the state of Vermont. Really a testament to both how he performs and the audience and the fans here feel free to help.

Kruse: He feels a connection and we feel it right back. It’s just like something you can’t explain. It just happens.

Chesney: She comes from Boston. Works at the jewelry store.

Siegel: The voices of Ronnie Ramos and Carolyn Kruse. Kenny Chesney plays tonight, Saturday and Sunday at Gillette. This story was edited and produced by Karen Marshall. You’re listening to GBH news.

 

Nobody has played Gillette Stadium more than Kenny Chesney.

The country music star has a massive Boston fan base, and nearly two decades ago, he was the first-ever stadium show at the home of the Patriots.

This weekend, he takes the stage in Foxborough for the 24th time with sold-out shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“I think all country artists in general are surprised at the reaction they get here in the New England area,” said Carolyn Kruse, midday host at the radio station Country 102.5. “We have super passionate fans. And as Kenny said, one of the first times I asked him why the love affair with Boston, he said it’s because he relates to audiences here, the passion of music, of sports, of just everything.”

Kruse, who has been at Country 102.5 for 31 years, said she remembers playing Chesney’s “Fall in Love” in the mid-1990s. Her station was one of the first in the country to play his music, she said.

Chesney usually ends his tours at Gillette Stadium.

He has told Kruse that the moment his tour buses and trucks pull into town, he gets a feeling that “everything is wonderful now, because you go through a lot of ups and downs throughout the summer. And it’s something that we all look really forward to.”

He has also talked about having a strong connection with Gillette, the New England Patriots and Robert Kraft, who owns the team and stadium.

“You get this country mega superstar from Tennessee and this, you know, stadium and football team owner in Boston,” said Ronnie Ramos, executive editor of MassLive, who interviewed both Chesney and Kraft for an article about their relationship.

Chesney first played Gillette almost 20 years ago, after a lunch with Kraft in 2005.

“I think there was a little bit of novelty because, you know, acts don’t do a lot of stadium shows back then,” Ramos said “And so the fact that we got a country music star playing in Boston, a lot of people that might have thought it a little weird. but he had built up quite a following from playing over at Mansfield for several years before.”

Kraft told Ramos he considered Chesney a member of his extended family.

“By the end of Sunday, they’ll be at close to 1.3 million tickets sold to Gillette for Kenny Chesney concerts, which is twice the population of the state of Vermont. Really a testament to both how he performs and the audience and the fans here feel free to help,” Ramos said.

Kruse said she once asked Chesney if the Patriots ever gave him a Super Bowl ring.

“He said to me, 'I’m not allowed to talk about that,'” Kruse said. “He feels a connection and we feel it right back. It’s just like something you can’t explain. It just happens.”