Kenny Chesney’s Sun Sign

Kenny Chesney with The Wailers perform "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" at "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Association.

April 20, 2009 — Kenny Chesney kicked off his Sun City Carnival Tour this weekend with a pair of shows at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. One safe bet: He won’t suffer another ankle injury like the one he got last year when his foot was caught between platforms coming up from underneath the stage.

This year’s entrance is from above the performance area, with Kenny dropping all the way from the rafters at the Mohegan, where he descended on a chair to the strains of "She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy." The set list, according to The Hartford Courant, included "Summertime," "Big Star," "Down The Road" and "Me And You." And he played plenty of songs that adhered to the Sun City theme, including "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems," "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven," "When The Sun Goes Down" and "Beer In Mexico."

The tour’s name, it turns out, came from a fan section he spotted during a tailgate party on last year’s Poets & Pirates jaunt.

"A whole section of the parking lot, these people had it all roped off, and they had their own little city, and they called it the Sun City Carnival," Kenny told Dial-Global. "The fans don't even know it, that I got it from them, but I thought, 'You know what? That'd be good for us, that right there.' So that's one of the few times that I went out there and got somethin' from people out there havin' a great time. I saw it on a big sign, and I thought, 'That describes everybody out here.' I think it fit us perfect."

Kenny continues the Sun City trek this week with a Thursday show in Albuquerque and a Saturday gig in Las Vegas with opening acts Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum.