How a Bus Driver Ended Up as a Co-Writer on Kenny Chesney's Fan-Favorite Song, ‘Somewhere in the Sun’

When asked what your favourite Kenny Chesney album is, it's difficult to settle on one project. Do you go for the stadium-filling hooks and galvanising spirit of Cosmic Hallelujah, perhaps, or the sun-soaked escapism and island-inspired joie-de-vivre of Life on a Rock? Or what about the trajectory-altering No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems?

For me personally, though, it's hard to look past Be As You Are: Songs From An Old Blue Chair, with this project feeling like the moment when Chesney decided to really double-down on the joyful, coastal ambience of No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.

While that album served as an outward-facing celebration of the things we love about the beach, and would've been just fine being a standalone detour from Chesney's then-traditional-leaning aesthetic, Be As You Are was a bold mission statement. This wasn't a phase, this wasn't a fleeting fancy - this was the true, authentic Chesney.

And one song that stands out from that rich, evocative body of work, which arrived in 2005, is ‘Somewhere in the Sun’. While most of the project finds Chesney already settled in the US Virgin Islands, this offers a fascinating - and deeply relatable - snapshot into the Knoxville native's state of mind while he's away from paradise.

The curtain opens on Chesney stuck in a run-down Holiday Inn, longing to be back on his Hey Now boat with his friends, sipping on some Foxy's Firewater rum and sailing off into the sunset. It was based on a real turn of events, and in a surprising twist, even features the ‘I Go Back’ hitmaker's bus driver at the time as a co-writer.

Chesney primarily penned the track alongside Tim Holly and Daryl Hobb, but as he recounts in his new book with Holly Gleason, HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, he had to include his driver, Danny Tucker, in the credits, because Tucker ultimately made a key contribution.

The ’Just To Say We Did’ singer-songwriter recalls how they ended up at the hotel, “Even when I wasn’t there, the islands colored my writing. Scheduled to play the University of Texas’ Frank Erwin Center in 2003, a freak ice storm cancelled our show. Trapped, because the roads were too icy to travel, Tim, Daryl and I were stuck”.

He goes on to describe the writing process as feeling uniquely organic, “‘Somewhere in the Sun’ fell out of that frozen – literally and metaphorically – moment in time. Trapped in a Holiday Inn parking lot, on our buses and these old hotel rooms, songs emerged. I started describing where we were: the bad room service, the TV with only “Andy Griffith” and “Barney,” because the cable was knocked out”.

He muses, “Whatever channel we could get, there was an ad for Cancun that kept airing. I could feel the melody as I writing it all down. Danny Tucker, my bus driver at the time, threw out the toast that became the bridge, so he was co-writer on the song”.

Chesney's famous toast in question, of course, is, “Here's a toast to you on the coast and the sailors out at sea / Drink your ales, hoist your sails / Ride the winds and think of me”.

Elsewhere in HEART*LIFE*MUSIC, Chesney cites ’Somewhere in the Sun‘ - and, indeed, the broader Be As You Are project, as one cohesive homage to his island life, “[It was] a love letter to the people and places I was discovering, you can hear the pull of this other life. Some people thought I was recharging, but it was more opening up and letting go. There’s a quiet you need to hear your soul, something you can’t do when there’s a bunch of buses and trucks, people needing answers. The answers I needed were found in hidden bars only the locals and sailors knew”.

Chesney's music, particularly his post-2000 catalogue, has always felt inherently and unashamedly personal, which is one of the many reasons it continues to strike a chord with listeners. Whether we find ourselves in sunny climes and want to use Chesney's music to soundtrack those happy moments, or whether we're in a similar headspace to the narrator in ‘Somewhere in the Sun‘ and are yearning to be sat on a beach with a margarita in one hand and our love in the other, Be As You Are is one strand that has since been met with so many others, as each listener adds their meaning and experiences into the song's vibrant tapestry.

Somewhere in the Sun‘ is a cornerstone to Be As You Are, because it not only represents Chesney's desire to return to the islands, but it also feels as though it symbolises how he desperately wanted, at that time, to move away from the classic country sound that was popular at the time, and towards an island-driven aesthetic.

So here's to Danny Tucker, for his contribution to this pivotal gem in Chesney's Be As You Are crown, a toast that has become a carpe-diem battle-cry for No Shoes Nation.

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