How the Kenny Chesney Song ‘Boston’ Came to Be

Kenny Chesney has made $1.2 billion on the concert circuit, making him the all-time top touring country artist. Chesney has closed out many successful summer concert seasons with packed performances at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

MusicMayhemMagazine.com says Kenny Chesney "has consistently been headlining stadium tours for years, bringing in major money, and allowing him to play for millions of fans throughout his long career."

According to the site, Chesney "has a total reported gross of $1.172 billion over 952 shows that saw him play to 17.9 million audience members."

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Chesney's song "Boston," one he says he only plays live in New England, was included on the Be As You Are album released January 25, 2005. The song, co-written by Chesney and Mark Tamburino, is also featured on the album Live in No Shoes Nation, released on October 27, 2017.

Chesney recorded the live version of "Boston" at Gillette Stadium on August 28, 2015. I was in the crowd for that performance. Chesney dedicated the song to the victims, first responders, and others impacted by the April 15, 2015, terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon several months earlier.

Chesney, who hails from East Tennessee, told the Boston Herald in 2010, "I wrote that song just about some friends from the Virgin Islands," where he maintains a home.

Chesney told the paper, "The song's about a specific girl, but the connection to Boston is that it seems a lot of the people I've met there are from the New England area." He added, "They come down there to live a different way, and I've become friends with a lot of them."

In the song, a young woman from Boston who "wears a Red Sox cap to hide her baby dreads" is one such person.

Chesney is a New England Sports fan who is friends with several current and former New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox.