Kenny Chesney has responded to the backlash he got for his expression when the camera shot to him during Beyoncé’s CMA performance last week (11/2) with the Dixie Chicks. At the show, Kenny was given the Country Music Association’s Pinnacle Award given for only the third time in the organization’s history. It was the next afternoon that Chesney was told that there was a buzz about him dissing Beyoncé and he was astounded. He said later, “I love Beyoncé… I loved her Super Bowl performance, her sense of how to make the music hit really hard – and give it drama when she’s onstage. The idea her fans were so quick to judge me, or know what I was thinking doesn’t feel like the woman I’ve always imagined Beyoncé to be – and honestly, the people who love her music, either.”

·       Chesney also said, “As someone who believes in the message of Spread the Love, we try to find the best in people – and in this case, that meant really watching the musicianship on that stage, as well as a guest in our format who’d written an incredible song. I am amazed and saddened this is the response my respect for her art gets.”