Reality

Songwriters sometimes get inspired in unusual places for their songs - and this is one of them! Chesney explained to Billboard magazine: "I got the idea to write 'Reality' in the dentist's chair. I'm sitting there with a gas mask on. There were a couple of years that I was so busy on the road I was kinda numb. I wasn't really tired, I wasn't really not tired, I wasn't really happy, I was just kind of numb." "So I'd go to the dentist to have something done and they'd put that gas mask on me and I'd be like, 'Wow, that's as relaxed as I've been in years!' I thought to myself, 'This is why people smoke pot right here! This is it!' I don't smoke pot, but this is why people do it, I guarantee you. Because it gets them away from reality. I even asked my dentist, 'I just want to come over here and sit some time, can you guys do that?' He said, 'We can't do that, we'd get in trouble." "I swear, I started writing that song on the way home. But then I related it to everybody that comes to see us. That's what live music is. It's an escape from reality. That's why as a kid I loved it. I still love going to shows, I love live music. That's where I got the idea to write the song, it's my message to the fans that it's OK to break free and escape reality, with us."

The song was Chesney's 21st Country #1. It took 23 weeks to climb to the peak position, the singer's slowest chart-topping climb of his career. It surpassed Chesney's 22-week rise with "You Had Me from Hello," which finally reached the summit on the September 18, 1999 survey.

Kenny Chesney and Brett James wrote "Reality" at the country star's house on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. They penned it along with another Chesney #1, "Out Last Night," in the same songwriting session.