Chesney becomes an author

The book, which he wrote with longtime publicist Holly Gleason, is his take on his journey from small town East Tennessee dreamer to headlining stadiums and making unexpected music in Jamaica, the Kremlin, New England and Cabo San Lucas.

"This is not my memoir," Chesney said, "but something far better. 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. To me, that's where the music came from, and this is the story of how it turned into the soundtrack for the way No Shoes Nation lives their lives, too."

"I always said I'd never write a book," he said. "Too many things happened almost to be believed, let alone lived, but I realized with the world moving in such fast forward motion, too much of what made Nashville, the music business and our lives great would be lost to the churn of the next click."

"To have been in a room as a kid writing with Dean Dillon, have Sean Payton call an NFL press conference to announce he's drafting me to the Saints, be in Tuff Gong Studios with Aston "Family Man" Barrett and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson or on a private plane with George Jones after opening for him defies logic. So, for everyone in No Shoes Nation, I realized: you deserved to share the magic."