Kenny Chesney 'Spreading the Love' to Help Victims of Boston Marathon Bombings

Over the years, .

And when that home was under attack on April 15th, Chesney felt the need to reach out to his extended family and provide relief to those in need.

“I do feel this sense of family with everybody in Boston and when that happened, like a lot of people I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Chesney said in a recent interview with JW & Lori on Country 102.5. “I thought about how I wanted to help in some way and I was trying to figure out what was best to do.”

After some thought, Chesney decided to “Spread the Love” to the city he loves and victims of the Boston Marathon bombings by starting a fund through donations and sales of his single, “Spread the Love” off his new album, “Life on a Rock.” The fund will help purchase prosthetics and fitting, follow-up care and physical therapy for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings who lost limbs.

“I’m working with the Boston Medical Center and helping people get prosthetic limbs and all the money goes to that because it’s so expensive and leaves people with a lot of anxiety,” Chesney told the radio station. “That’s how I decided I wanted to help people and the city that’s been so good to me.”

Every time Chesney’s single, “Spread the Love” is purchased on iTunes the country star will donate his share of the royalties to the Boston Medical Center to help purchase prosthetics, which cost roughly $50,000 each. Chesney co-wrote and recorded “Spread the Love” with the Wailers.

“I’m a big believer that music can heal people,” Chesney said. “I wrote a song on this record with the Wailers and it’s a song called, ‘Spread the Love’ and the thread of their music was the essence of what we are doing with the song. It’s about spreading the love and it’s about lifting people up. I decided that the single sales of ‘Spread the Love’ … people go to iTunes and download the song then all the proceeds for my share of the song will go to help all the people who need help.”

Chesney added that people can donate directly to the fund by visiting http://bmc.org/Kenny or by sending checks payable to Boston Medical Center to Boston Medical Center, Office of Development
801 Massachusetts Avenue, First Floor - Boston, MA 02118-2393.

“We are trying to do some good and trying to alleviate some of the anxiety I know these people are feeling,” said Chesney. … “Hopefully this ‘Spread the Love’ song will do what it is supposed to do. I’m so excited that we are trying to let music heal people. Let some of these people realize they are not as alone as they think they are.”

Chesney is ‘Boston Strong’

During a recent concert, Chesney spotted some fans in the crowd holding up “B-Strong” t-shirts for the country star to take on stage, which he did proudly.

“People realize and know the connection with me and [Boston],” said Chesney. “They know the Red Sox is my favorite team. I think they realized the connection, and like a lot of people, [the Marathon bombings] really rocked me and I don’t know, it just felt like something that I needed to do. Boston and throughout New England, I have so many friends there and I do feel like it is a second home for me in a lot of ways.”

Thousands of those friends and family will be in Foxborough later this summer when Chesney ends his summer tour, “No Shoes Nation,” at Gillette Stadium on Aug. 23-24.

“I can’t wait to come to [Gillette Stadium],” Chesney said. “It’s always my favorite event of the summer for a lot of reasons because I get to see all my family in New England and all the crazy fans. I think this is the third year in a row we’ve ended our tour there so it’s a lot of fun.”