Despite concert mishap, Kenny Chesney receives go ahead for upcoming shows

During the show at Columbia, S.C.'s Williams-Brice Stadium, the problem lasted for almost 40 seconds as the lift motor kept trying to push the platform up. He played with a decided limp and tears in his eyes from the pain.

Chesney has been given a green light - with conditions - to play his scheduled concert stops this weekend in Texas from the Tennessee Titans' sports medicine/orthopedic specialist.

Chesney said the doctor "got that the last thing I want to do is cancel shows, but also that I don't want any kind of lasting damage because being able to hit that stage and really rock the fans is important to me," Chesney said after getting word that he was good to go to Austin. "He told me it's going to hurt - though nothing could hurt worse than Saturday I don't think - and they can give me something to deaden the pain when I get out there.

"I also have to have a doctor standing by should something give, but I'm going to tape it up, and I'm going to get out there. Hearing that crowd in Columbia this weekend, they reminded me about the power people's passion for music has. You know, the way people respond to songs...that response is every bit as powerful sometimes as the songs themselves."

"All I know is I didn't want to disappoint anyone in Columbia, who'd been out in the parking lots since the day before...either going to the Next Big Star competition or just partying with their friends...and if they were having that kind of a party, I was gonna be there."

Chesney's publicist said his toes sustained most of the damage - basically a hematoma from the ankle down. He needed two shots of morphine for pain after leaving the stage.

"If you want to push your limits, you have to respect what the doctors tell you," Chesney said. "It was scary for a moment...you don't know what's happening and you just feel this pain. Once you're out of there, though, the crowd carries you, and given how the fans in Austin, Oklahoma City and Dallas have always been to us, they're gonna bring their best and really rock us, too."