Kenny Chesney Says Writing Lucky Old Sun Was Good Zellweger Therapy

Kenny Chesney said his new CD, Lucky Old Sun, was very helpful therapy in helping him get over his failed relationship with Renee Zellweger. Chesney and Zellweger met in January of 2005, were married in May 2005, and the marriage was annulled four months later with Zellweger citing fraud.In an interview with Newsweek, Chesney brings up Zellweger in discussing his new release: One of your songs is called "Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to Be." Is that a theme of your album?It's the root of the record, for sure. In 2006, I was probably as emotionally and mentally exhausted as I'd ever been. And that was due to a lot of things--having the foot on the gas pedal constantly, and my breakup with Renee Zellweger. I got in a plane and went down to the Virgin Islands. I was completely by myself. I didn't want to be around anybody. So the next thing you know, it's me and a pen and I sat down and wrote a lot of lines of this song, "Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to Be." Didn't you worry about writing about your breakup with Renee?It's the truth. It's my life. I've been in a lot of states of mind in the last three years. In that way, it's a pretty honest record. I've let myself be more emotionally vulnerable in some of the lyrics. I think that was good therapy.Are you still heartbroken?Not at all. I already wrote those songs. I'm on to something else.How long did it take for you to heal?It was horrible. It took a while. Years. It's been since 2005.How do you think Renee will react?I have no idea. I don't know. It's unpredictable.  Do you still talk to her?No. Well, every now and then. I don't want to say this whole record is about her.Are you dating someone else now?Oh, yeah. In addition, Chesney spoke with The Tennessean just last week about his new Lucky Old Sun release and some of the events of the past few years. He said he knew he was in trouble when he just didn’t feel like taking the stage to perform at Raymond James Stadium in Jacksonville. Chesney told The Tennessean, "Right before the show, I was hollow, I mean, passionless. Felt like I had 50 pounds of bricks on my back. Didn't want to go on. Didn't want to be there. And how can you not want to be there? Who doesn't want to play in front of 50,000? That's when I knew there was really something wrong. I actually thought about not doing this anymore. I was that uninspired."Chesney said he was inspired after spending some time with Willie Nelson and producer Rick Rubin. As for Lucky Old Sun, Chesney said, "I think we're hearing a lot of the same songs on the radio, the same guitar licks and the same things over and over," he said. "I've made records like that, and I didn't want to do that here. This record comes from a different place, and getting it out there feels like closure. What I'm trying for is a balance. And this is a step closer to where I want to go."