Beloved Taylor Swift was actually asked to bow out....
While many country artists would love to have the popular Taylor Swift come on tour with them, Kenny Chesney paid good money to keep the pop/country music artist away from his stage.
He had his reasons, and they are not quite what you would think. Back in 2009 when Taylor was slated to join Kenny’s 2009 Sun City Carnival Tour, Taylor was only 20 years old. You might recall her latest album was named after her birth year, 1989.
Chesney had booked Corona Light as a sponsor for his tour. Because of the slew of ethical and legal issues that stemmed from having a minor open for a tour sponsored by a leading alcohol brand, Chesney chose to let Swift’s camp know about the situation before the tour began.
“I had to call her and tell her she couldn’t be on the tour,” Chesney recalls. Although he apologized about the situation, there wasn’t anything he could do to change it.
He wrote Swift a check to make up for potential revenue lost.
That year, Swift won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award, ending Chesney’s four-year stint as the reigning entertainer.
“I went up to her backstage, gave her a hug and told her I wanted my money back,” Chesney jokes.
Fast-forward to 2015— Swift was spotted getting cuddly with Calvin Harris at Kenny Chesney’s Nashville concert last week. We think Taylor recovered just fine. 😉