At Gillette Stadium, Kenny Chesney Is Most At Home

FOXBOROUGH, MA – Kenny Chesney is by now a Foxborough institution. He could sleepwalk through his set and still sell out crowds – but he won't. After 18 shows at Gillette Stadium, the country megastar refuses to lay off the gas, bringing the same hallmark energy to his end-of-summer performances that's made him the Bay State's adopted son over the past decade.

Chesney's arrival Friday night was like saying hello to an old friend. He may be a country legend, but Foxborough is where everybody knows his name.

The show marked Chesney's millionth fan at Gillette – an impressive milestone that earned him congratulations from Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, Rob Gronkowski, the Massachusetts State Police and many others (even Matthew McConaughey had a cameo) in a video montage that played before he took the stage.

What's behind the Tennessee native's love affair with Massachusetts?

"When I look out at the crowd, I see a lot of familiar faces," Chesney told the crowd Friday night. "And what I mean by that is I see people who work hard, play hard, love hard and love life. That's No Shoes Nation."

Chesney coined the term for his fanbase – No Shoes Nation – at Gillette Stadium in 2012. Since his first performance there in 2005, he's developed a deep connection with New England and the Patriots organization in particular, cheering on the team from the owners' box during their improbable Super Bowl comeback in 2017.

Chesney was joined Friday by country stars the Brothers Osborne and Dierks Bentley. Bentley, who warmed the crowd up with hits like "Drunk On A Plane," "Somewhere On A Beach" and "Black," has also taken a liking to Massachusetts. He honored his friend Dan Foley, a Boston Marathon bombing survivor who appeared in the music video for his song "The Mountain," and shotgunned a beer with an audience member decked out in Patriots regalia.

Chesney kept the party going with a two-hour set that ran the gamut from recent hits like "Get Along," "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" – a duet with longtime country singer David Lee Murphy, who joined him on-stage and sang some of his own songs – and "All the Pretty Girls," to classics such as "I Go Back," Beer in Mexico" and "The Boys of Fall."

Like last year, Chesney said goodnight to the crowd with "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."

Friday night's performance didn't break the mold – fans know what to expect when Chesney comes to Foxborough – but it was rollicking trip down memory lane and proper send-off to summer. And no one says goodbye to tank tops and flip flops and hello to the boys of fall like the guy who's been doing it for 18 shows.

Photos courtesy of Gillette Stadium / Dwight Darian