Video debut: Kenny Chesney's 'When I See This Bar'

• %27When I See This Bar%27 features footage of Chesney and his friends in the Virgin Islands
• The single is currently a top-20 hit at country radio
• Chesney will perform the song July 22 on %27The Tonight Show with Jay Leno%27

Kenny Chesney's new video was 12 years in the making.

Chesney calls When I See This Bar, which he wrote with Keith Gattis, "a journal entry that rhymed," and he wanted the song's video to have the same sort of simplicity. So When I See This Bar, premiering at USA TODAY, features footage and stills from the country singer's life in the Virgin Islands.

"It's got a lot of my life in it, a lot of the friends I met down in the islands back even before I started building my life as I know it now," says the native of Luttrell, Tenn., who spends most of his time off the road in the Virgin Islands. "Like the song, there's a lot of life in this video, and it's got a lot of people who inspired me in the ways they lived their lives."

Chesney shot the video for his current top-20 single at some of his favorite spots in the Virgin Islands, as well as during rehearsals for his 2013 No Shoes Nation Tour, which takes him to Salt Lake City tonight and to Denver's Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Saturday.

"I went back to a couple of these old bars and sat with me and a guitar," Chesney says. The older footage comes from "back when we used to have the camcorders that flipped out, before you could make a movie on your phone" and features many longtime friends and figures that played key roles in his life.

"This video probably has more of my life and more of my heart — and we spent less on it — than anything I've ever done," he says.

When I See This Bar is the latest single from Chesney's chart-topping Life on a Rock album. He'll perform the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on July 22.