Eight-time country music Entertainer of the Year Kenny Chesney returns to CMT Crossroads to share the stage with one of his musical influences, rock icon Steve Miller, in the latest episode of the hit CMT series. CMT Crossroads: The Steve Miller Band and Kenny Chesney premieres Friday, July 9 at 8:00 p.m. CT on CMT.
Longtime friends, Miller and Chesney have shared the stage at San Francisco stadiums during Chesney’s summer tours, performing classic Miller hits. Now, the two join forces to perform each other’s songs and swap stories for what promises to be another landmark episode of CMT Crossroads. ??Featured in the hour-long episode are Chesney’s hits “Living In Fast Forward” and “I Go Back,” along with the Steve Miller Band classics “The Joker” and “Abracadabra.” Chesney is making his second appearance on the series; his first was October 2003’s pairing with heartland rocker John Mellencamp.
With songs such as “Rockin’ Me,” “Jet Airliner,” “The Joker,” “Fly Like An Eagle,” “Livin’ in the USA,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Abracadabra,” Miller is one of the cornerstones of classic rock. Born in Milwaukee, he grew up in a home frequented by musicians like Charles Mingus, Les Paul and T-Bone Walker and formed his first band at age 12 with friend Boz Scaggs. After stints in Madison, Wis. and Chicago, Ill. blues bands, he moved to San Francisco and The Steve Miller Band (known initially as the Steve Miller Blues Band) emerged from San Francisco’s summer of love with a sound that was distinctively different from its peers. Over 40 years later, the band has sold over 25 million records and is still a mainstay of the summer concert season. Miller’s new album, Bingo!, was released earlier this week to rave reviews.
Chesney has notched 19 No. 1s, including “Young,” “Summertime,” “Out Last Night,” “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven,” “Beer in Mexico,” “Anything But Mine” and “Who You’d Be Today,” and has sold an excess of 35 million records. He is the only artist to sell more than a million tickets each of the past eight summers, and he has come to define summer for those coming of age across the country. Beyond his four consecutive ACM and four CMA Entertainer of the Year Awards, Chesney has also won the CMA’s prestigious Album of the Year for “When the Sun Goes Down”, the ACM’s Top Male Vocalist and Top New Male Vocalist awards, the American Music Awards’ all-genre Fan Favorite Award and multiple ASCAP awards for his songwriting.
