If Kenny Chesney plays his cards right, he may be able to wrangle some serious workers comp out of this.
As it is, the superstar country twanger sustained what appeared to be a bone-crushing injury during a sold-out concert Saturday in Columbia, S.C.
The 40-year-old appeared to be in obvious pain after making his entrance into the 44,424-strong Williams-Brice Stadium after getting his right foot caught in between a rising platform and the stage itself.
Enterprising fans managed to catch the technical malfunction on cell-phone camera and have since posted the cringe-worthy video on YouTube.
As soon as his foot got caught, Chesney fell to the stage and wrestled for upward of 30 seconds to pry his it out of the jamb. If nothing else, the incident proved—in addition to the consummate professionalism of Chesney himself—the singer does not rely on backing tracks.
As he fell to the ground to free himself, he immediately stopped singing and, as the band played on, the lights in the stadium were darkened while he pried his foot free.
After that, the Chesney show went on.
While the 10-gallon-hat-wearing Grammy winner didn't acknowledge his injury once during the concert, he was frequently spotted holding on to his knee during numbers, notably the briefly interrupted first tune, "Live Those Songs," and otherwise limped his way through the evening, including taking rests during the instrumental breaks of songs by leaning over the drum riser on stage.
"I took one look at those fans, and there was no way I wasn't going on," he said in a statement after the concert, which was part of his Poets and Pirates tour.
"Sometimes the energy and the adrenaline pull you through. They had come to rock, and there was no way I was sending them home with anything less than the best of what me and my guys came to do—put it all out there and give them back at least as good as they gave us."
While Chesney has not revealed the seriousness or extent of his injury, after the concert, according to Columbia's The State newspaper, a team physician from the University of South Carolina was on hand to treat the singer. Almost immediately after he left the stage, his boot was cut off from his foot, ostensibly due to massive swelling of the extremity, and his knee was treated in an effort to minimize the physical damage.
Chesney served as the closing act for the show, which also featured performances by LeAnn Rimes and Brooks & Dunn, among others. After the gig, he credited the fans with his ability to soldier through.
"Honestly, through the pain, through all of it, Columbia, S.C., totally got me through."