Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter’s relationship was always rooted in friendship — and nothing else.
Chesney, 57, recalled getting Potter, 42, to collaborate on their 2010 song “You and Tequila” in his memoir, Heart Life Music, published on Tuesday, November 4. He also acknowledged that the track’s music video portrayed an unrealistic view of their close-knit relationship.
“We spent two days in Malibu, rolling around the canyons, seeing the cliffs and the ocean, drinking tequila and talking about life, love, what you dream and how hard it can be getting there,” Chesney wrote about filming the “You and Tequila” video. He told readers that Potter has “a real sense of fun” outside of being a musician.
“Anyone who’s ever seen that video assumes we were having sex,” Chesney wrote. “Even Mom thought we were sleeping together, but that wasn’t true. That chemistry comes from our gypsy souls, our desire to chase music where it takes us and disappear into places we can be still.”
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Chesney reached out to Potter before they recorded the song. He was listening to her live album and realized that they would make great music together.
“I looked up at the sky and exhaled,” Chesney wrote. “I knew we were aligned. She sounded like coming home.”
When recording “You and Tequila,” it only took Potter “two or three takes.” But that song allowed for their friendship to bloom.
“We’d talked longer than she was in the vocal booth. Even before it was mixed, we knew it was something,” he added. “That’s the thing: You know.”
Their song was featured on Chesney’s 2010 album, Hemingway’s Whiskey.
“I’ve always believed there are things in our lives that were predetermined — set into motion by some larger power,” he wrote. “Grace was absolutely one.”
He added: “That heart that Grace brings to everything she does was a skeleton key in my world. Any time she takes a stage with us, people are transfixed.”
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Following their collaboration, Chesney and Potter’s friendship continued to get stronger.
“Grace and I have told each other our deepest secrets, talked each other through tough stuff and tried to show up for the other,” he wrote. “I’ve told her things I wouldn’t tell anyone else, because rather than judge or saying, ‘How did you let that happen?’ she asks, ‘How can I help?’”
He added, “It’s tricky wanting so much for the people you love. You don’t want to tell them what to do or where to go.”
Chesney recalled worrying that Potter was “making a mistake” by marrying her ex-husband, Matt Burr. (Potter and Burr were married from 2013 to 2017.)
“I could see two great people who probably weren’t meant to be together forever,” he added. “I couldn’t quite tell her, but Grace swears she knew without me saying a word. We drank a few bottles of really good red wine, had a rager, saw the sun come up, and I got back to the tour.”
Chesney wrote, “She always tells me how generous that was. I think it’s what you do for people you love.”
