Kenny Chesney Names 'Knowing You' as New Single

Kenny Chesney has announced the third single from his latest album, Here and Now, sending the reflective "Knowing You" to country radio on Monday, Feb. 22. "It sounds like coming home in a lot of ways," Chesney said in a statement. "This is the essence of all the music that country is. When you hear this, something inside tingles, because it's more than production tricks, the guitars, or how hard the drums hit, it's just so pure... Country at its very best is true, it's from the heart. 'Knowing You' is just that, it's all heart."

"Knowing You" was written by Brett James, Adam James and Kat Higgins and finds its narrator ruminating on the whereabouts of someone close to them who has since left. "We all have those people in our lives, who set you on fire with possibilities, make everything mean more in the moment and forever after that," Chesney mused. "It's so technicolor and alive, you may not even realize when you're in it. But when it's done, you have to smile because you're so much more for knowing them, so much more because of every second you shared."

"Maybe they left you to chase a dream, maybe circumstances pulled you apart, maybe they died, but wherever they are, you know they're bringing all that to that place – because that's what they do," he continued. "It's what they did for you, and you can only be grateful for what you experienced." The Tennessee native added, "It's not that it's gone, it's that it happened."

"Knowing You" is a country waltz that hovers somewhere between a ballad and a midtempo song, which allows for the feelings of loss and appreciation to co-exist. "With that tempo – and the way the guys played it – there is so much room for the memories, the feelings, the details of not just what happened, but how you were changed in such powerful ways," Chesney said. "To have a song that leaves room for dreaming, for remembering? That amazed me, and it seems so important right now."

Here and Now was released in May 2020 and led off with its title track, which went to No. 1. The second single, "Happy Does," landed in the Top 5 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Here and Now debuted atop Billboard's 200 Chart, tying Chesney with Garth Brooks for the most albums to top the chart by a country artist with nine apiece.