Kenny Chesney Credit: Brian Friedman/Shutterstock
After a long summer packed with political controversy for the Tampa Sports Authority, the tax-payer funded organization that books Raymond James Stadium is now making a safe, non-political pivot to Kenny Chesney, a guy who says it’s “not his place to tell people how to think or how to vote.”
Yesterday, TSA announced that the 58 year-year-old country singer will kick off his “Original Vibe Room Tour” at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium this spring.
“When we started to talk about touring next year, all I could think about was how good those stadiums feel how loud, how fast, how much energy comes hurling at us,” said Chesney, in a press release, which notably had zero mention of the more than 34,000 women and children who’ve died in Gaza since October 2023.
“I don’t think I knew how much I missed it,” continued Chesney.
Over the last few months, the Tampa Bay Sports Authority has faced tremendous pushback after it willingly agreed to an atypical, iron-clad contract with “former” Nazi and presidential candidate Kanye West, even after knowing full well he had a song called “Heil Hitler” and sold swastika shirts on his website. Then, this week, the organization faced renewed scrutiny for the removal of rapper Macklemore from Ed Sheeran’s Nov. 7 Tampa stop, after a billionaire Epstein associate led a pressure campaign to boot the “Thrift Shop” artist because he said “free Palestine” at a recent show.
On the contrary, the TSA now has a guy like Chesney, who in the past has shared a stage with politically-charged artists like Bruce Springsteen, but most recently appeared on a podcast with edgy centrist Bill Maher to proclaim that he doesn’t partake with that stuff, and prefers to not get all political at his shows.
“I’ve never saw it to be my place to use my stage or platform, no matter where I’m playing, to tell people how to think or how to vote. They hear that…They get that everywhere else. Everywhere, on every device, every network. They’re there as an escape from all that stuff,” said Chesney to the Club Random podcast.
The Country Music Hall of Famer—who actually performed at Crowbar in Ybor City before his 2022 Raymond James Stadium gig—also confided to Maher how he buries the human-like sensation to say things like “we shouldn’t cage people for not being white,” or “people deserve food and medical care.”
“There’s a certain ego, I think, that lives in there,” explained Chesney, “and a certain box inside your head and your soul that you have to check, for some reason, to think that you can make a difference.”
Chesney’s “Original Vibe Room Tour,” with support from Eric Church, Sheryl Crow and Greylan James, comes to Raymond James Stadium on April 24, 2027. Tickets go on sale Sept. 25.
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This article appears in September 10 – 16, 2026.
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