“Meet Clay Mitchell Guitarist For Kenny Chesney”
Clayton Mitchell Feibusch
Many know Clay as Clayton Mitchell, but his family name is Feibusch. He is Kenny Chesney’s lead guitarist. Clay is from Scottsdale, AZ, where he attended Liberty Elementary and Horizon High School graduating in 1993. He began taking guitar lessons and playing at the age of 8. By 11 years, he was playing guitar in clubs and at the age of 12, he was the bass player for Ash Wednesday, a heavy metal group, that also included his brother Judson Feibusch. Judson was the lead singer and lead guitarist for the group. Clay’s musical influences at that time were AC/DC, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Iron Maiden and Metallica.
Clay has been playing lead guitar for Kenny Chesney, since 1999. He has contributed his songwriting skills to some of Kenny’s songs in the past.
In 2007, During the Flip Flop Summer Tour, Kenny Chesney said, “Clayton couldn’t be happier – because he’s gonna get to go out there and trade some hardcore playing with not just a hero (Joe Walsh), but a guy who really turned electric guitar into something scary on pop radio.
Clay seems to like to contribute his time to charity work. One such time was in 2014, when he backed The Outlaws, along with his fellow Kenny Chesney band mates, at a charity function held at Acme Feed & Seed in Nashville.
From 2011 – 2015, Clay was in a “side” band called Breakleg, which was headed by Mark Tamburino. Mark is known as Tambo and is part of Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Radio group. Also in Breakleg was another Kenny Chesney player—Sean Peyton, drums.
At the California Rose Bowl, during The Big Revival Tour, Kenny Chesney had this to say of Clay… “Clayton is one of those guys who spent his teenage years absorbing every guitar player he could get his hands on,” says his tour boss (Kenny Chesney). “He can literally play every lick Eddie Van Halen ever recorded, and that’s just the tip of what he knows. Every night, with Clay, Kenny Greenberg and Jon Conley, we hit the music pretty hard – but these guys never lose the melody or the emotion.”
Clay makes his home in the Nashville area.
A huge thank you goes out to our special “Sandbar Contributer”… LH For all her great research on Clayton.
Connie was lucky enough to hang with Clay at the pool in Vegas at one of the original No Shoes Radio Parties. He is a super sweet and a soft spoken guy, but on that stage he certainly turns into a rock star for all of us in the No Shoes Nation.
Thank You Jennifer Jones for the cool slide show of Clay too!