Kenny Chesney Banned from Erie County, New York

Kenny Chensey is not welcomed to play a concert in Erie County apparently, according to a source.

Chesney, one of the greatest country artists of our time, was just inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame along with June Carter Cash and Tony Brown this past year. He has played the biggest venue in Western New York, Highmark Stadium (at the time it was Rich Stadium) opening up for George Strait and Tim McGraw.

There was a time when concerts were put on hiatus at the Buffalo Bills stadium and we were talking about it this morning, when one caller told us that it was because of the "Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw horse incident" and that Chesney is banned from playing a show in Erie County, New York. We have never heard that be such a thing, BUT Chesney truly has never returned to Erie County, New York since the incident in 2000. Darien Lake is the closest he has came and that is in Genesee County, New York.

The stadium had 2 concerts in the following year in 2001, but those could have been already scheduled--if in fact, the "horse incident" was the decision to stop concerts at the Bills stadium. The next concert after that was 14 years later when The Rolling Stones returned to Buffalo in 2015.

In case you didn't know, here is the 'horse incident' with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw that happened in Buffalo. In 2000, they were playing a concert with George Strait at Ralph Wilson Stadium and the Erie County Sheriff's were there with their mounted horses. The story goes that Chesney, McGraw and his manager took one of the horses and then there was an altercation between them and the police officers. The singers got arrested and appeared in court in 2001 where they were found not guilty by the jury.

At the time, Chesney was 33 and McGraw, 34 when they were dismissed, Faith Hill spent time in Orchard Park during the trial. Tim and Faith have talked about the incident when they were here in Buffalo while on tour together and they seemed to think that the situation was blown out of proportion.

Was Chesney truly banned from playing?

We don't have any true Erie County confirmation from an official or a judge, BUT the biggest piece of doubting evidence is that Tim McGraw, who was involved with the incident has played in Erie County a few times since--including Sahlen Field and Key Bank Center.