Kenny Chesney delivered the first of his 14 stadium shows for 2008 Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., and while it was a success, it did not go the way he planned.

As Kenny was being delivered to the stage on a lift, his right foot got caught between the mechanical platform and the main stage for more than 45 seconds, crushing his right foot, and breaking at least his little toe. Despite obvious pain, Kenny still performed his full show, which lasted nearly two hours.

"I took one look at those fans, and there was no way I wasn't going on," Kenny said. "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 ? and honestly, through the pain, through all of it, Columbia, S.C., totally got me through."

The show drew 44,424 fans, who saw not only a complete set from Kenny, but also performances from his guests Brooks & Dunn, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and Luke Bryan. In addition, Uncle Kracker made an unannounced appearance, joining Kenny on a reprise of their gold single "When The Sun Goes Down."

A bluegrass trio called Woodwork Roadshow became the first act to perform at one of his shows as a local winner in Kenny's Next Big Star competition. And Kenny pulled a woman from the audience on stage when he sang "The Good Stuff." The song, with its storyline about a man who loses his wife to cancer, spurred the woman to hold up a sign telling Kenny, "I beat cancer listening to your music."

Despite his own health concerns that evening, Kenny was quite taken with her story of survival.

"Those moments remind you how much a song can mean," he observed. "You hear stories all the time, but to see the face of someone who's been there, faced it and made it — that just takes your breath away."

Kenny's next stadium date comes Saturday at the 20,000-seat Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, north of Dallas. Kenny plays the soccer field along with LeAnn and Brooks & Dunn.