Country superstar Kenny Chesney [ tickets ] is taking his Poets & Pirates tour to 16 stadiums around the country this year, most of which are used primarily for football contests.

"It's amazing to me how much intimacy you can have in a place that big," Chesney said in a press release. "But there's something in those big shows you can't get anywhere else: a whole other kind of energy.

"You feel those fans all the way to the top. And there's nothing like it."

The tour kicks off April 26 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC, home of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Dates are currently scheduled for 13 stadiums around the country through September, with more shows to be announced later. All of the current dates are included below.

The singer has lined up a number of big names to join him on the trek. Keith Urban [ tickets ], Brooks & Dunn [ tickets ], Sammy Hagar [ tickets ], Big & Rich [ tickets ] and Luke Bryan will all make appearances on select dates, while Grammy winner LeAnn Rimes [ tickets ] and country singer Gary Allan [ tickets ] will be on board for the entire tour. Chesney's official website will have complete lineup details as the show times grow closer.

Chesney is touring behind last September's "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates," which has seen its first two singles--"Never Wanted Nothing More" and "Don't Blink"--claim the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

"I tried on so many titles," Chesney said in a press release. "But, in the end, it was the simplest name that fit this record the best. 'Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates' pretty much says it all ... At the end of the day, you strip it all off, and that's what it comes down to: great songs that are about the smallest things and people who're living just beyond the rules.

"I mean, a lot of my friends in the islands, they're living the pirate life," he continued, "and you could say that anyone living on the road, always waking up somewhere else, they're living the pirate life, too. But I think a lot of my fans, they're really the pirates. You know, they show up at the office, but their souls never leave the ocean or the lake or wherever they get away to. Their spirit is free, even though they look like one more 9-to-5'er or shiftworker."