Kenny Chesney Joins the Country Music Hall of Fame — Here’s What We Learned From His Speech<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n“She sat right beside me. I tried, I mean, it was six months trying to get her to go out with me,” Chesney recounted. “…I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna write her a song.'”<\/p>\n
At the time, he had just started playing shows at local bars and was beginning to think about writing his own material.<\/p>\n
“This was the first song I ever wrote, and it was trying to persuade — and ironically enough, it was in a class called Persuasion,” he continues.<\/p>\n
He wrote the song, recorded it onto a cassette and passed it to the girl on a Thursday. Then, he had to wait all weekend until the class met again the following Tuesday. He walked in that day full of anticipation.<\/p>\n
“I came in, like, ‘Okay, this is it,'” Chesney says. “She was sitting as far back in the corner of the room as she could sit.”<\/p>\n
Read More<\/em>: Love Hurts: 18 Celebrity Breakups We Never Saw Coming<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nNeedless to say, that relationship didn’t work out.<\/p>\n
But the experience was an important lesson in connecting with an audience — something that would arguably go on to become the most prominent part of Chesney’s country music career.<\/p>\n
“That was my first taste of rejection in the music business, and as a songwriter,” he explains. “But it went from there, yeah. You listen, you read, you observe people’s lives and you try to communicate that.”<\/p>\n
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60 Artists Not in the Country Music Hall of Fame<\/h2>\n\n
Which county singer is most deserving of a Country Music Hall of Fame induction? Here are 60 artists who don’t have a medallion yet, with some thoughts on when each is eligible and if their fans can expect that nod soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n