“Poncho, my friend was right,” Kenny Chesney wrote on Oct. 28. “I needed you and I thank you.”
Those words came near the end of Kenny’s goodbye to Poncho, his goldendoodle of 15 years. Poncho passed away early that morning, just a few weeks after his 15th birthday. “My heart is broken but yet so full cause I know he gave us all he had,” Kenny wrote.
Kenny is the Tennessee singer behind “When the Sun Goes Down” and “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame last year, and his 21st studio album, “Silver Sands Marina,” came out in September.
For most of his grown-up life, Kenny didn’t think much about dogs. “I was one of those guys that really didn’t have dogs in their lives, and I didn’t even think about it,” he told Anderson Cooper on CNN’s “All There Is” podcast in 2025.
A friend changed that. About 15 years ago, he showed up at Kenny’s door with a goldendoodle puppy and a few words to go with it.
Poncho fit right into the life of a touring singer. Kenny wrote that he loved the boat, the bus and backstage. “He loved the smell of the ocean and the islands like his dad,” Kenny wrote, along with the smells on the streets of Key West, Florida. Kenny called him a constant companion who “had swagger.” In 2012, Poncho even made a guest appearance in Kenny’s “Come Over” music video, Country Now reported.
He had a best friend, too. When Kenny and his longtime love, Mary, got together, she had a rescue pit bull named Ruby. “Ruby and Poncho never spent a day apart,” Kenny told Cooper. Ruby passed away in December 2022. Days later, Kenny released a song he had written about her years before, “Da Ruba Girl,” and gave all the proceeds to Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
Kenny’s own YouTube channel shared a short film called “The Story of Da Ruba Girl,” and Poncho is in the cast. One title card reads “Starring Poncho as Da Ponch.”
Poncho and Ruby in Kenny’s short film
So what did the friend say at the door? Kenny shared it in his goodbye.
“Fifteen years ago a friend showed up at my doorstep and said, ‘here Kenny, you need to learn to attach to something,'” Kenny wrote. “That’s the day Poncho entered my life.”
The friend saw something Kenny didn’t. “I’ve heard a dog enters your life when you need it most,” Kenny wrote. “And not just any dog, a specific dog just for you. To help you, to heal you, to show you how to accept unconditional love and give it back. Poncho did all that and more.”
That puppy turned out to be a natural on stage. Kenny played Soldier Field in Chicago on June 15, 2024. Poncho came along. “One of his proudest moments was prancing on stage at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2024,” Kenny wrote. “I thought it would scare him but he loved feeling the energy of the crowd and refused to leave the stage.”
“Instead of being timid, he was a show off a lot like me,” Kenny wrote. “That was a favorite moment in 15 years of favorite moments.”
iHeartCountry put together a short clip on Kenny’s goodbye that shows his own words on screen, including the Soldier Field story.
Kenny’s goodbye to Poncho in his own words
Kenny closed with a message for both dogs. “Our connection and our bond will live forever and I’m gonna miss you,” he wrote. “Say hello to @DaRubaGirl for us.”
His last line was for Poncho alone. “Goodbye Poncho. You were one heaven of a dog.”