When the Academy of Country Music honored Kenny Chesney with its Crystal Milestone Award in March, it recognized he was in the same league as U2 and the Rolling Stones when it came to selling concert tickets -- in Chesney's case, more than 10.5 million tickets during 11 national tours.

Then came his Brothers of the Sun tour with Tim McGraw. Starting in June and ending in August, the 22-city extravaganza piled up even more superlative statistics. The two compadres broke attendance records at MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey-New York metroplex and then proceeded to sell an astounding 111,209 tickets for the tour's two concluding shows at Gillette Stadium near Boston. Little wonder that Billboard lauded Chesney with its road warrior and top package trophies at its annual touring awards ceremonies in November.

Despite his frenzied road regimen, Chesney found time to co-star with pop thrush Katy Perry on the Macy's Fourth of July Special broadcast on NBC-TV.

Chesney is now firming up plans for his No Shoes Nation tour that will commence March 16 in Tampa, Fla., and end Aug. 23-24 with back-to-back shows at the welcoming stands of Gillette Stadium. By the end of the tour, Chesney will have played more than 100 stadium concerts in his seemingly evergreen career.