Kenny Chesney won’t tour in 2017

Kenny Chesney will "pull back" from touring in 2017.

The 48-year-old country music star has had a hectic touring schedule for the last two years, and has said he wants next year to be less "intense".

Speaking to CountryCountdownUSA.com, he said: "We’re going to pull back just a little bit [from the road]. The last two years have been so intense; we’ve done 160 shows in an 18-month period. So I felt, with the new music, I want the fans to digest it and let it seep into their lives a little bit."

The ‘Setting the World On Fire’ hitmaker has decided to strip back his tour to just "five or six" shows in 2017, after having wrapped his ‘Spread The Love’ tour in August this year.

It’s not a permanent decision though, as the country rocker has said he’ll "crank it up" again in time for 2018.

He said: "So next year, we’ll do five or six shows, we don’t know how many yet, but other than that, we’ll let this new music find its way. Then the next year, we’ll crank it up again."

The ‘There Goes My Life’ singer says it’s important to know when to "get away" from working so closely with his band mates, and that’s what stops them from getting sick of each other.

He added: "When you work together so much as a band and a unit and a family, it’s great, but you do need to get away from that to keep it new. That’s one of the secrets to our success, is knowing when to hit it hard, and also knowing when to pull it back a little bit, just so they want to feel that moment again. So that’s what next year’s going to look like."

It isn’t the first time Kenny has taken a break from the road either, as he previously took 2014 off from touring in order to "put the music first" whilst working on his album ‘The Big Revival’.