Features
Shirts, Shoes But No Service For Chesney Lookalike
Nathan Blankenship, a semi-doppelganger of the country star, joined the crowd for a Chesney show at LP Field in Nashville June 23, and hung out there for about four hours – before he got kicked out for looking too much like the star of the show.
“Just got kicked out of K.C. concert because drunk people thought I was actually him,” Blankenship tweeted. “No refund. Ch 4 & fox want to talk2me. so mad.”
Security escorted Blankenship out of the stadium because he was “purposefully trying to impersonate a celebrity,” he said.
But Blankenship claims he was doing no such thing.
“Is it because I wear a hat?” he asked WKRN-TV. “I see a million of these hats here. I’ve worn baseball caps before and people still want to have pictures made [with me], but it’s never caused a problem. I can’t believe they think I’m actually him. Why would Mr. Chesney be in the crowd when Tim McGraw is singing?
“I think the way they handled it made it seem worse, like they were really escorting Kenny Chesney through the crowd.”
His $200 ticket also left the building, but he said he was more upset when the security guard told him, “This is coming straight from the top.”
LP Field officials told WKRN they’d been “tipped off” about the lookalike by an unnamed source.
Chesney promoter The Messina Group was quick to note the call did not “come from the top.”
“No one in Chesney’s management or promoter camp was aware that this fan had been escorted from the show until after it had been reported by the media,” TMG said.
The company’s Kate McMahon added, “We never want our fans to leave disappointed and we are reaching out to him to make this situation right.”