Living in Fast Forward

Chesney has been caught up in the whirlwind of success - "a hillbilly rock star out of control" - and wants to settle down. "It's time that I toned it down just a notch or two," he sings. Nashville songwriter Rivers Rutherford, who penned the track with country singer David Lee Murphy, was inspired by his own hectic life. He recalled in a Rolling Stone interview: "I called my wife from some city, I can't remember… I was coming back to Nashville and I realized I had to be in another city that day. I didn't have time to go home. So I called her and asked her to meet me at the airport with a suitcase full of clean clothes and take home my suitcase full of dirty clothes. There was this long pause and she said, 'One at a time!' When I got back in town, I told that story to David Lee Murphy, and we wrote the song in about an hour. We started that song around 3:50 p.m., and I had a meeting with Buddy Cannon (Chesney's producer) at 5:00 p.m. I was a little late and told Buddy, 'Sorry, I've been writing a big hit.' And Buddy says, 'For Kenny?' And sure enough, he cut it and it was a big hit for both of us."

This was a #1 hit on the country chart, Chesney's ninth on the tally.

While promoting The Road and the Radio album, Chesney told CMT this "defines how I've lived my life in the last several years. Because it has happened so quick. And I say it's happened so quick. I mean, I've been doing it for 12 years. But the last four to five years, it's been an amazing thing to live through and to see happen to you and to see your fan base grow to a point where it's unbelievable to stand in front of that microphone every night and see how passionate they are about your music. ... More importantly, how much fun they're having with it ... out in the parking lots before the show and during the show. It's everything I ever dreamed of and more." He added: "But you don’t have to live the kind of life I live to live your life in fast forward. There’s a lot of people out there living their life in fast forward. It’s just kind of the way we live today. You know, it’s pretty fast paced, and no matter what you do for a living, I think that you can get a little caught up in it and push a little too hard. You need that outlet. Mine’s a boat. Whatever it is to rewind, you’ve got to do it."