Curator Jon Freeman told iHeartCountry that Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward was “several months in the making.” Standing in front of the display, near Chesney’s iconic blue chair (which he considered a must-have item), Freeman reflected on the “deep research phase,” to prepare the exhibit. “I think I probably read just about every interview that Kenny's ever given over the last 30 or so years,” he said. He pieced the star’s story together from there. Freeman and his team weaved Chesney’s life story through his defining moments, his dozens of No. 1 singles, “tons and tons” of albums and accolades, and more. Freeman noted it was “excellent timing” that Chesney’s memoir, Heart. Life. Music., released as the team researched his life. It was also “a happy accident” that Chesney was inducted into the Hall of Fame via a voting process in which Freeman and his team “don’t have any say.” Having discussed the possibility of an exhibit on Chesney “for some time,” his induction timing was “remarkable.”

“One thing that I love actually is this guitar right over here is one that he played when he was in college as well as kind of his early days in Nashville,” Freeman pointed out. “So through about 1993 or so. And he wrote some of the songs with it. But as you can see on there, one of the things that he did was anytime he encountered somebody whose work he admired, an artist, a songwriter, he had them sign it. It kind of shows you that appreciation that he had, the reverence that he had for their work.

“I'm really excited for them [fans] to see multiple sides of Kenny, both as a human, as someone who came out of East Tennessee and then found his ambition and found his calling as this recording artist,” he continued. “And maybe this duality of he's a guy who can play stadiums, but he's also someone who really, really cherishes his kind of time away when he needs to reset, which is where you get into him going to the islands, the Virgin Islands, and having a bit of time to just sort of unplug from all of that for a bit. And hopefully that shows you he's a little more complicated and complex than maybe you imagined.”

The exhibit also includes, per the Country Music Hall of Fame:

The varsity jacket and jersey Chesney wore while he was a member of the Gibbs High School Eagles football team in the mid-1980s. He began playing Pee Wee football when he was five, and the sport has remained constant in his life.
The Fender Concord acoustic guitar Chesney played throughout college at East Tennessee State University and after he moved to Nashville in the early 1990s. Country artists and songwriters he encountered along the way signed the instrument — including Kent Blazy, Whitey Shafer, Karen Staley, Sheb Wooley and Country Music Hall of Fame members Dean Dillon, Harlan Howard and Porter Wagoner.
The cassette tape on which Chesney recorded a demo of "When She Calls Me Baby" on June 1, 1992. Co-written with Rick Williamson, the song was re-recorded for Chesney’s debut album, In My Wildest Dreams, released in 1994.
The weathered wicker rocking chair that provided the inspiration for Chesney to write "Old Blue Chair" after waking up on the beach as the sun rose over Peter Bay on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The song was first released on his 2004 quintuple Platinum album, When the Sun Goes Down, and reappeared on his next more intimate singer-songwriter project, Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair). The chair was prominently featured on the front and back cover of the later CD and in the 2005 music video for "Old Blue Chair."
A handwritten Nashville Number System chord chart for "You and Tequila" that was used in the studio when Chesney recorded the song in 2010. Featuring guest vocals by Grace Potter, it was released as a single from Chesney’s album Hemingway’s Whiskey and went to #3 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The Grammy-nominated "You and Tequila" was co-written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter and first recorded by Carter in 2003.
A life-size, plastic replica of the 235-pound blue marlin Chesney landed while fishing in the Virgin Islands North Drop in 2003. After having the fish mounted, he named it "Marley" in honor of reggae legend Bob Marley. The fish became an iconic tour mascot, displayed onstage as a reminder to Chesney and his road family not to take life too seriously. Nicknamed "Marley 2," this replica washed away from Chesney’s home during the 2010 Nashville flood but was found several miles downstream in the Cumberland River and returned to him largely intact.
The No Shoes Nation tank top and Diesel Safado jeans Chesney wore when he performed at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, on August 26, 2022.
The Atwood pinto palm leaf hat that Chesney wore on the cover of his 2024 album, Born.
The football Gillette Stadium presented to Chesney to commemorate his three sold-out shows at the Foxborough, Massachusetts venue, on August 23-25, 2025. Chesney has cultivated a close relationship with the nearby city of Boston, connecting with New Englanders who share his passions for music and sports.
A Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul LPR-8 electric guitar autographed by two of Chesney’s musical heroes: guitarist and singer-songwriter Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, and Sammy Hagar, former lead vocalist for the rock band Van Halen, signed during his 2008 Poets & Pirates concert at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

Chesney, who recently announced his upcoming studio record (Silver Sands Marina), is part of the star-studded, genre-spanning lineup of the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capital One. The lineup also includes BTS, Benson Boone, Cardi B, Goo Goo Dolls, Lainey Wilson, Major Lazer, Muse, Snoop Dogg, Weezer and Zara Larsson, with more to be announced. Ryan Seacrest will host the two-night event when it returns on September 18 and September 19 to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans can tune in live on iHeartRadio stations nationwide or stream every performance on Disney+ and Hulu, giving subscribers front-row access from the comfort of their homes. Tickets are available on AXS.com. For more details about the iHeartRadio Music Festival visit iHeartRadio.com/Festival.

Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward will remain on display until June 2027. The exhibit is included with admission into the museum. Scroll below to see photos of the exhibit.

Brooke Taylor

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