Kenny Chesney Was Supposed to Be Near Ground Zero on 9/11

Nearly 3,000 Americans died in the terrorist attacks that took place at the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as other targets around the country.

Among those who had close calls was Kenny Chesney, who was scheduled to be in New York filming a video just a block away on that fateful morning.

Why Was Kenny Chesney Supposd to Be in New York City on 9/11?

Chesney had recently re-released “The Tin Man,” a single he originally released in 1994. He was slated to film a video for the song in NYC on the day of the 9/11 attacks, but equipment delays ended up pushing back the shoot.

READ MORE: Country Songs Inspired by World Events

“We played a fair in Pennsylvania on Sept. 10, and we were supposed to have driven from Pennsylvania into New York City that night and start shooting my video that morning, basically a block away from the World Trade Center the morning all this happened,” Chesney recalls to CMT.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, while another plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania in a terrorist attack that would change America irrevocably.

The country superstar had forgotten all about his originally scheduled video shoot until he turned on CNN in the front of his bus that morning while traveling through Virginia. When he saw the footage of the devastation in New York, “It didn’t hit me at first,” he states.

“I was laying on the couch, just watching this and couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God.’ I said, ‘We’re supposed to be there.’ And it was a weird feeling.”

“You know, I’ve always believed in guardian angels, but it really makes you believe that there’s something up there,” Chesney adds. “I’m glad we weren’t there. I mean, I feel for everybody that was there. I think we’ve all been changed forever by it.”