Hear Kenny Chesney’s Plea to Unplug the ‘Noise’

“I was at home one day and noticed all these talking heads on TV, all these people who want to be heard,” says Kenny Chesney of the inspiration behind “Noise.” “So they keep talking over each other and the next thing you know, they’re all screaming. It gets so loud, that it almost becomes white noise.”

Noise that’s “drowning out all the dreams of this Tennessee boy,” he sings in the brand-new single, co-written with Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman and Jon Nite, and released today. It’s a timely tune lamenting the lack of conversations and the inability to stop and smell the roses, due to the clamor of everything from construction to television.

“There’s a line in the song that says, ‘We didn’t turn it on, but we didn’t turn it off.’ And that is really true about this tidal wave of sound that is forced on us every day,” says Chesney, who revealed the song during a Facebook interview hosted by Rolling Stone Country contributor Sarah Rodman (watch the interview below). “There are all these different frequencies in our head, and it’s overwhelming. And we didn’t necessarily ask for all of it, but we’re getting all of it.

The thing that got me most excited about ‘Noise’ is it’s such a socially relevant idea; it paints a picture of what we’re all going through,” he continues. “We’re so addicted to communicating. We’re all trapped in our phones, and we’re all multi-tasking. At the end of the day, my brain is fried. So the message is to try to get yourself out of that cloud. Believe it or not, once you get out of your phone there’s a whole world out there, and it’s really beautiful with really great people!”

“Noise” is the first single from a new album due out this summer. Chesney will tour in support of the project, with Old Dominion, Sam Hunt and Miranda Lambert also along for the ride on select dates. The Spread the Love tour kicks off April 23rd.