Kenny Chesney [ tickets ], last year's top-grossing and top-drawing country music act, will kick off the first leg of his 2005 tour on March 11 in Green Bay, WI.

Joining the Tennessee native on the outing will be opening acts Gretchen Wilson [ tickets ] and Uncle Kracker [ tickets ]. Though the tour's routing has been announced, specific venues and ticket on-sale information wasn't available at press time.

Chesney will be on the road behind, "Be As You Are: Songs from an Old Blue Chair," on Jan. 25. Its title track will premiere Friday (1/14) on AOL Music.

"It's a funny thing," Chesney--who played to more than 1.2 million fans last year--said in a statement. "We rock so hard out here, you get to where you think you really need that break. And then once the feeling of rolling down the road fades away when you're sitting in a chair and the cheering stops ringing in your ears, you start itching to get back out here."

More than 3 million copies of Chesney's latest album, "When the Sun Goes Down," sold in 2004, making it the No. 4 top-selling album of the year. Tourmate Gretchen Wilson's debut set, "Here for the Party," was the fifth top-selling album of 2004.

Last year's success "really makes us want this year's tour to be even better, even more exciting," Chesney said. "We've been working on the set concept since last summer. They're building it now, and we're trying to figure out a few other things, things that you're gonna have to wait and see. ... I can't wait to get to Green Bay to put it all together and see how it works!"