10 Questions with ... Dierks Bentley

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

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Dierks Bentley was born in Phoenix, AZ and is a product of a Western Country sound movement. Bentley has spent his entire career signed with Capitol Nashville. Since releasing his self-titled debut album in 2003, Bentley has continued his steady rise to the top, now firmly entrenched among the "headlining" crowd. With a new single at radio, a new album forthcoming, a full tour planned for this summer, and the grand opening of his Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row Nashville bar just behind him, Bentley sat down to discuss everything happening in 2018. Bentley has also been honored with the CRS Artist Humanitarian Award this year for his philanthropic efforts, and he will be giving a full interview at CRS 2018.

1. Hi, Dierks. Thank you for taking time with us today. As Country Radio Seminar (CRS) 2018 kicks off, we know that you are not only going to be sitting for an interview, but you're also being honored with the CRB Artist Humanitarian Award. Can you tell us about some of your favorite charitable initiatives and how you feel about this honor?

That's awesome. I'm looking at that motorcycle back there at the back of the room, and it reminds me of "Miles And Music For Kids," which is something we did for ten years. It was started for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital back when this town was still pretty quiet 12 years ago. Vanderbilt needed money, and so we were able to start writing some checks over there. The last one we did two years ago, we were able to raise over $600,000 that day. It had been ten years, though, and I called everyone I knew so we could put a cap on it. It was such a collaborative effort, and it is awesome to be honored. It gives me a chance to honor all the people that were involved in making that happen. It takes a lot of people! All the police departments, and all the volunteers, and the bands, and vendors. So many people gave their time and their expertise to make that show happen every year. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. So, to be able to go and get on the microphone and just thank everyone - I think anytime you win anything, you just want to be able to thank people. This really means a lot.

2. Speaking of the motorcycle in the back, we're gathering today at a pretty special place - your newly-opened bar in Nashville, "Whiskey Row." It's pretty empty today, but it soon, it will be filled with tourists and fans filing in from Lower Broadway. How long did it take you to get this opened?

Hopefully, yeah; since it's January, there aren't too many people wandering around. But, it looks great with you guys in it. I'm hoping to make money in about 10 years. It's a long-term investment! But, it was like two years ago to the day, I think, that we signed the deal to start this process. It was a lot of work, but it looks great. Obviously, these guys did a great job. It's really fantastic. And, it's great to have a spot right here on Lower Broadway where we can do stuff like this.

3. Let's talk about the tour for a moment. The "2018 Mountain High Tour" was announced, and you put out an interesting video to showcase your support acts, Brothers Osborne and LANCO. What was the inspiration behind that tour release video?

It's a good buddy of ours, Ryan Silver, who he shot The Brothers' award-winning video for "It Ain't My Fault." He came up with this concept. I've known Ryan forever, and he's been on the road with us for a long time shooting all of our little gags and bits on the road. So, he presented that. And, this is just a fun thing. I've been doing this for a long time, but I've really just been headlining at this level since like 2014, so it hasn't been that long. It still feels really fresh and new to me, so the idea of doing something fun before and to announce with a video was probably something that I originally initiated, but Ryan had a good idea for this one. And, [Brothers Osborne and LANCO] were all game to come out there and spend four or five hours in the woods. It says a lot that they would do that and be happy to do it. So, if you love it, it was my idea, but if you hate it, it was a guy named Ryan Silver.

4. Touring has changed a lot for you over the past decade, as you've risen to headliner status. What are the most important elements to the touring aspect of your life, and what do you hope to get out of this summer's tour?

I've been doing this for a long time, and I've had some false starts. I had two or three years of trying to tour and headline in these big arenas that would hold 20,000, and only 2,500 would show up. Every review was like, "Bless his heart, he was playing like it was a sold-out show, but nobody came." So, this feels like a second career, almost, because it's a second chance. It's like you're starting in the place now where you've had the success, so you care - but you also don't care. I just want this to be fun for me, because at the end of the day, I've already got a lot of great stuff going on. I'm spending the whole summer out there, and I've got a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a four-year-old. It's not about making money; it's about my life! I want to have a lot of fun, and I want to make great memories, and I want to be totally present from the second we get there on site until the last encore. I want to be thinking of the fans' experience from the time they get there to tailgate until the last one gets home safely.

5. You've certainly picked some fun touring partners in Brothers Osborne and LANCO. How did you select these two groups to be the support acts for this particular tour?

It's really fun, and you want to spend that summer with people you want to be around. Obviously, that would be nice if it's also people who happen to be having success in their career who can help sell tickets and all of that. But, we are one plus one equals three. It has to be where a group of people come together, and their sum is greater than their parts combined. I've gotten lucky in the last couple of years. I feel like last year was crazy. Jon Pardi was just - he hadn't even had "Dirt On My Boots" out yet - it just felt like something really special was happening with him. This all starts early. I'll get like a month on this tour, and then it'll be back to looking at 2019. You have to go pretty early on and make that call. With [LANCO], I loved that song and the new artist energy they had going on. It seems like they have a really focused energy and know where they're going, which is a lot more than I can say about myself! It took me a long time to home in on exactly who I was trying to be. But, they just have that thing, and there's a hunger to their live show, which makes it great for all of us. Then, [Brothers Osborne], I think we did one of our first shows together in Washington, D.C. My buddy, Jay Williams, is booking them, so I went out and watched them. I've been following along and have just been waiting for the right moment to make that move. There's a lot of people trying to get these guys this year, and we're just lucky that we got them. And, I should also note that John [Osborne] is a founding member of The Hot Country Knights - the fourth or fifth greatest 90s Country cover band in the Murfreesboro area.

6. You're hitting the road with a new set of music in your bag, too. Let's start with the single, "Woman, Amen." Can you tell us about the background story of the song, and the process of writing and recording it?

That song was from the same guy that I wrote "Drunk On A Plane" with, Josh Kear, and I heard the idea and thought it was so - I don't know what it is, but I love it. It was the same thing when I heard the title "Drunk On A Plane." I was like, "I love drinking, and I love planes! I don't know what this song is, but we need to write it!" It was the same thing with "Woman, Amen." I didn't know what it would be, but I thought we needed to write it. It just felt different, which is what I'm always trying to find. I love the message. It's very directly honest for me in my relationship with my wife. I feel like I'm more grateful for her every year that this goes along. When we first got married 12 years ago, I was out there doing 200 or 300 dates a year. I was just shooting from the hip - "Let's get married!" I proposed in Las Vegas, we went down to Mexico three days later and got married, and I was back on the road. It was so crazy, and the more life goes on, the more we grow closer and closer, and the more I'm grateful for her. She's the one steering me, as I'm caught up in the music and the road, and she's helping me be the man that I am. She just has more vision in some ways than I do, as most women do. I feel like the song is very personal, very honest, and very direct, but I also feel like it's also very universal. I also love the sounds that came out of it. Those "whoa"s are kind of a tricky thing to get right in a song and make it sound natural. But, I sang the whole song over in Ross' studio over near Sevier Park. I tried to sing it in Telluride, but it's kind of hard to sing at 10,000 feet. That's probably why people don't record up there, and why they go to the beach! But, I ended up just keeping the vocals from that day. Those vocals were put down after the song was done. But, yeah, I love the message, and it's a good way to start the album. I feel like the album is a big, inclusive thing with songs about living, and mountains, and the sun, and a lot of nature and landscapes. But, this felt like the best way to start it out - with home, and with her.

7. And, you wrote the album in Telluride, correct?

Yeah. I went out there with six other songwriters and said, "Hey, this is what I'm trying to write. I don't know what it is, but it's in here somewhere. Let's go for some hikes, and drink some coffee, and get the vibe." I had a bunch of things started, but there were a bunch of songs that came out of there that have geographical and nature references. Also, just in nature, I connect with that area of the country in a way that's really soulful. It inspired a lot of metaphors that came out of that idea of climbing a mountain. When I was trying to think about what kind of record I was going to make, that whole summer of being on the road - and the summer before it - you meet so many fans backstage at your meet-and-greets, and they tell you these great stories. If you're really open to hearing those stories and taking them in, they could really help you give that show on that night an added purpose. I've heard so many stories of people struggling and using live music in as a way on their journey to help them continue on, so that kind of became a metaphorical thing, too, for "The Mountain." It was really about finding the muse and following it, and about trusting that tiny little seed of an idea. I feel like we got really lucky; it felt like a really authentic experience. There was a lot of magic involved with it.

8. So, why Telluride? What sparked the interest in that location?

I was playing a bluegrass festival in Telluride, and it was an amazing afternoon out there - a Thursday afternoon show - and I was on stage with Sam Bush, and Tim O'Brien, and Chris Steely, and Jerry Douglas...and Del McCoury came out and surprised us...it was just an epic day. It started out with my son breaking his arm in two spots, so there were definitely a lot of emotions that day. We spent 45 minutes at the doctor trying to twist it back in to place. I figured at some point my son would go to Colorado and trip, but I didn't think it would be when he was three! But, I just got out there, and it was so special. There's just something about that vibe. And, I had wanted to make a record about the West in some way, but I wasn't sure if that was a lyrical thing or a sound or something. But, it's where I'm from, and there's something about it that is really special.

9. After the writers' retreat in Telluride, you took it to the next level and decided to return to produce the album there. Can you tell us about that decision and how it changed the recording process for you?

It was really just about following the vibe. We were out there writing at the best time. We'd grab some coffee, take the gondola up, watch the sunrise, then come back down. We'd start writing at about 7a. It was just so collaborative. The place where we were writing just had like boxes holding the speakers up and a trash can for the computer. There was no furniture in one of the rooms. We had three different little houses we were writing out of. And, [songwriter/producer] Ross [Copperman], well, everyone knows how Ross is, and he goes, "Man, we should come back out here and do the record, man! That would be so dope!" I thought, sure, that would be so funny to come back out here to make a record. What would we do, hang mics through the ceiling tiles? How are we going to even do that? But, it just kind of became an idea, because everyone really wanted to go back. It turns out, there was a studio about 30 minutes outside of town that ran off of solar power. We just made it happen and went back out there with some guys in my band and a few other musicians about three months later. It's just about trying to do something different. This was my first time making a Country record outside of town, and it really helped. It's hard here; especially once you have kids. When 2:30p rolls around, I'm thinking about school and thinking about how I want to go pick up my kid and see him. Being there [in Telluride] is forcing you to just be - there's nothing you can do about it, so you commit all the way. You're living with the guys in the band and living with the songwriters, and we just decided to breath it. I'd recommend everyone make a record like that at some point in their career. It all comes down to the songs, though. If you have great songs, you can go record them anywhere.

10. Moving in to this next album and phase of your career, can we go back and discuss some of the beginning and touch on the evolution of your brand? Are you comfortable with the direction your career has taken, and is there anything you'd change as you reflect back on where it all started?

I was the first band to play at The Stage, ever, and I was also the first one to get fired - about two weeks later! I got fired, because I had an upright bass and a steel guitar, but no electric guitar. We just weren't loud enough, and we weren't playing "Sweet Home Alabama." We were playing all the stuff I really love, which is more hybrid Bluegrass-Country stuff. That's really what the first record was, with dobro and some kick-ass Bluegrass sounds. Then, I probably got away from that a little bit - I know I did. I'm proud of all the records I've made, but sometimes when you start trying to headline, you start trying to make music that will help you headline. You start trying to put those two worlds together, and I found out it just doesn't work that way. I started hitting a ceiling where it just wasn't going to go anywhere. Yeah, the Bluegrass record ["Up On The Ridge"] was kind of a reboot, where you didn't know if the computer would turn back on or not, but I felt like I didn't have any other choice, and I was ready to walk away if it didn't. That record was so important, because I made it with Jon Randall, who really taught me about finding great songs. I thought I had been looking for outside songs, but it wasn't until I started working with him that he would bring me [Kris] Kristofferson songs and Buddy Miller songs. We really just understood that you can't tour as hard as we do and have a crazy home life and also write every song. You look at artists like Miranda Lambert. You think she has written everything, but she's really only written half the record. It's genius! Who would have thought of that?! Moving forward, with Arturo [Buenahora], it was about finding great songs and trying to totally isolate albums from touring. You can't even think about combining the two of them. Just make great albums that can literally be on vinyl and sit next to your record player, and you'll be proud to look at them for the rest of your life. It's more of a risk, but the reward can obviously be better and bigger if it pays off. When I made this record, I can really say that I wasn't thinking about songs that would be good tour titles or any of that crap. I was just trying to make a great record. I think I've finally gotten to a place where I can breathe a little bit when it comes to this headlining thing, because I think I can finally just trust that it's going to be okay. I don't' need to have a death grip on the steering wheel or peek out from behind the curtain every night wondering if people are going to show up. We've carved out a niche, and we have a thing we're doing. People know that our shows are really fun and genuine, and there's always a great comradery between the acts. It's the same way you have that freedom when you first start making records - that reckless abandon - because you just have nothing else to go for. When you get a little bit of success, I find that you can kind of go back to that. It's like you've got nothing to lose again, because if it doesn't work out, I guess I can just come hang out at my bar! I still have a lot I want to do, but I can breathe, because I think we've finally carved out a little niche here. I've never cared less, but at the same time, I've never cared more.