Dierks Bentley

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[00:01:11] Additional terms apply. All right, well we just watched Dierks Bentley prepare for his Gravel and Gold tour with a couple songs, and we are backstage at his rehearsal spot here in East Nashville to talk about the tour that kicks off in Fort Worth on June 7th.

[00:01:40] Now you've been touring for some time now. How does touring look now compared to how it used to? You know, well sonically my biggest thing about country music is always just the music.

[00:01:50] We have a big stage set up and the video wall moves and we actually sing a song from behind the video wall which is crazy. And we put a lot of time in the production of the show. But just sonically I feel like it's changed a lot.

[00:02:00] And sometimes I feel like I'm the last, like not last, one of the last Mohicans as far as like the band goes. You know, like heavy steel guitar. Ben who just walked by, one of the best guitar players in this town. Not only acoustic but also electric guitar.

[00:02:16] I mean he can just shred a telly. Sometimes I'm up there playing and I was like, I really feel proud of what we do because there's a lot of musicians, I really feature musicians in our show.

[00:02:24] And they're up front with me, they're not hidden backstage, they're not wearing like you know black clothing and all hiding. They're like right there with me.

[00:02:31] It's like, I remember watching Pearl Jam play back in the day and it was like, you know, five distinct individuals across the stage all doing something unique. And you didn't know where to keep your attention and I try to bring that to our show.

[00:02:41] So it's changed and I feel like what we do is a little more like a country, old school country band set up and sound. And a lot of emphasis on the music and the parts and the playing.

[00:02:53] So I guess that's, you know, I like representing that kind of that era of country music on our live show. When it comes to, you have such a long catalog.

[00:03:03] So when it comes to building a set list for a tour, how do you kind of mix in the new music while also making sure the fans hear all the hits that they want to hear? The ultimate guide, the whole thing is a fan experience.

[00:03:13] I am a fan. I was just at NOAA Con concert there and I know what it's like to go to concerts and you know, the opening act's not getting enough lighting or video content.

[00:03:21] Nothing, it's NOAA Con but that show is like, the guy who went on stage first, I couldn't even see him because the video camera's a static camera out front. And the lighting was super low. I'm like, man, that's not fun for the fans.

[00:03:31] You need to make that opening act like, give them all your lights, all your video, all the sound, get that crowd pumped up. I got there early to see the opening act. I couldn't even tell you who it was. There's no, I couldn't see him.

[00:03:43] So really just my whole thing is about what's the fan experience from the second they walk in to the second they walk out? Great opening bands is a big part of it. Collaborating with them on stage during our show.

[00:03:54] And my set list goes as far as the songs go. Sing the hits. You know, I want to pack as many hits in there as possible, songs everyone knows. I've tried to build a roller coaster with the set.

[00:04:01] So there's gonna be some slower moments and maybe a song you don't know, a new song. But for the most part, I'm going to try to pack like three hours of music into an hour and a half set. Not waste anybody's time.

[00:04:10] Let's, you know, we got a saying as songwriters, don't bore us, get us to the chorus. You know, like when you write a song, like let's not mess around here. The people want the meat.

[00:04:18] So a little lead in, but let's get to like what makes people have it, you know, what really hits people. So yeah, I try to pack as many of the hits as I can and give everybody what they want.

[00:04:27] And what they want is what I want, which is to have a really fun night. I want to step on stage and be like, be taken for a ride myself. I don't want to be thinking about putting on a show.

[00:04:34] I want to be like, let's have a drink and let's rock. Let's have fun. Now, again, with such a large catalog, what is the song that you are most proud of? It might not even be one that you perform on tour, which I hope it is.

[00:04:45] But yeah, what is the song that you're most proud of? You know, a lot of songs I love the most never made to radio, but maybe I hold on. You know, that's a special song for me.

[00:04:56] My dad passed away about 13 years ago, and that song was written after he passed away. And it's a song that's so personal to me, but the audience really connects to it as well, too. So that's a big song.

[00:05:11] But yeah, drunk on a plane is fun to sing, too. Watching these guys play every night is always a highlight for me as well on stage. But for songwriting goes, I think a song I wrote with Brett James, I hold on is always a special song.

[00:05:24] Has there been a song that you've released that you didn't think got the attention that it deserved, like you thought it was going to be a bigger hit or you wish it would have gotten more attention or anything like that?

[00:05:34] I just put out a song called Something Real that didn't do that great on radio. That happens from time to time. I wrote that with Hardy and a couple Ashley Gorley and Ross Coffman, Luke Dick. The song we all got together in Colorado.

[00:05:45] And I love what that song said, you know, about music, about a live show, about life, you know, looking for that real substance. And, you know, that's the kind of music I love. I was talking about Noah Khan earlier. I love his music. That's so good.

[00:06:00] His songwriting is so amazing and so real. I mean, it's crazy real. It's like not songwriter real. It's like real life somehow fit into lyrics. I think that's why that kind of music is so popular right now. It gives a really gravitating towards that authenticity in their music.

[00:06:15] And I thought that song, Something Real, said that. It didn't work out, but it's still one of my favorite songs. I always love Goodbye Until You're Out. Oh, I love Goodbye Until You're Out. I like the song called Still. Sunsets in Colorado.

[00:06:26] Sam Bush just called me there today to see if I'd come out and sing on his 50th anniversary show at Telluride Bluegrass Festival. We're going to do Sunsets in Colorado together. So that song, I wish it would have been a single.

[00:06:37] It would have been a lot of fun. Well, talking about Bluegrass, you were recently on the cover of a Bluegrass magazine. You talk about having the show really feature all the artists like any traditional country show would.

[00:06:48] Can you explain where your Bluegrass roots came from and how important it is to you? Yeah. I'm just a huge Bluegrass fan, first and foremost. Ronnie Bowman, who's one of the greatest lead singers of all time in Bluegrass music, texted me a picture of that cover.

[00:07:03] And I wrote back, this is kind of silly because I'm just a Bluegrass fan. I love the music. I do play it and sing it, but I don't play like those guys do. I just love to play rhythm guitar and sing and harmonize.

[00:07:16] And I love the banjo and the fiddle and mandolin. It really came from Nashville, going to the station when I was 18, 19 years old with a fake ID and going in there and hearing these guys singing songs they didn't really know

[00:07:27] that well by guys like Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers. But then they're all singing Johnny Cash songs and George Jones songs, but just doing it with the original country instruments, which was the banjo, the fiddle, the mandolin, the dobro, the upright bass.

[00:07:44] And they weren't singing for fame or fortune. They were just doing it because they just love singing. And that was really like, I'd moved to Nashville to find the source of this thing I love. And I didn't find it on Music Row.

[00:07:55] I found it on 12th Avenue with the station in. So music's always been the backbone of what I loved about Nashville, what I love about country music, what I love about the community, the people that are doing it for the right reasons.

[00:08:08] You find that on lower Broadway as well too, all the guys and girls picking and singing down there. But that sound, that bluegrass sound, it's just so powerful to me. I mean, when you hear Ricky Skaggs and Country Thunder kick off a song, I mean, it's like

[00:08:22] that Memorex commercial. Is it live or Memorex? It puts you back in your chair. It's like the punk rock version of country music. And I just always try to feature that in my music from What Was I Thinking all the way

[00:08:35] to my most current single, American Girl, the Tom Petty cover. There's a lot of that sound in there. To me, it's just, it'll always be cool. Bluegrass is really having a moment right now with guys like Billy Strings and Sturgill released his bluegrass album a couple years ago.

[00:08:50] And it seems like it's entering more into the mainstream. Even Zach Bryan has some of that sound in his music. Billy Strings is the future of acoustic music. I mean, he's the present and future.

[00:09:02] And Brian Sutton told me that about six years ago, that the future of bluegrass music is in good hands. He kind of befriended Billy Strings. But yeah, I was lucky to have Billy on a record. And I've watched him play a couple sold out shows at Bridgestone.

[00:09:15] And I think you might get into some people bring you into a certain genre. But then you keep searching for the source. And Billy is a guy that, it's like the Del McCurry band and the Traveling McCurries. They live in that hippie trippy jam band stuff.

[00:09:32] But they really have the roots to go all the way back and do it. You want to learn the real, where the music comes from, you go watch Del McCurry and those guys. But Billy, he's unbelievable. He's just so good.

[00:09:42] And it's great to see him playing all types of genre festivals. We played a show together the other day. He headlined one night. I headlined the other nights. And that was a country festival. So the kids are discovering Billy Strings. And he's the best.

[00:09:54] Now, you're obviously a great musician. But you've become also a great businessman. You have so many side projects, including behind you, Hot Country Nights. Yes, that's a good business. I don't know if that doesn't make any money. But it loses a lot of money. Just ask Capitol Records.

[00:10:09] I think that's dragging down their entire bottom line, how much CD stock they're sitting on. But I do have a couple things I'm involved in. Yeah, I don't try to be. My favorite thing to do is just to be outdoors and off. I'm as lazy as anybody.

[00:10:25] But I just kind of follow passions. And what I wear on stage, the clothing, I work with a company called Flag Nanthem. We have our own line of clothing called Desert Sun. And it's all just like flannels and good jeans and comfortable clothing you can wear offstage, onstage.

[00:10:41] Kind of fits my lifestyle of just being ready to do anything that comes up at any moment. I have a whiskey coming out called a Row 94. That's something I've been working on ever since I opened Whiskey Row. Just a really good whiskey that I love.

[00:10:55] And then I have a drink mix called Withco, which stands for With Company, that I'm involved in heavily. And it's just, you're out here on the road. You're seeing our backstage light. This is what it actually looks like backstage.

[00:11:06] We have a lot of friends that come out on the road. And I like pouring drinks. And I want something that, you know, I have friends that don't drink anymore. I have friends that probably drink more than they should.

[00:11:14] And so it's nice to have something that you can take this drink mix and mix with alcohol or mix with water or soda. And it allows everybody to have a good time backstage.

[00:11:22] So just, and of course, the bar is Whiskey Row, which I'm sure this week down there is going to be insane. I can't imagine what Whiskey Row is going to be like this weekend during CMA Fest. But yeah, it's all super fun.

[00:11:36] And I only try to get involved with things that are like, that really mean something to me. Even sponsors I work with. You got Jersey Mike's coming out this year. I've been eating Jersey Mike's for years. It's like my go-to.

[00:11:45] There's one over at Berry Hill that I've been going to for 20 years now. So just, I try to work with things that are, that I have a connection with. So I'm from California, lived in Colorado. Now I'm in Nashville. So I've hit Whiskey Row and all three states.

[00:12:01] The Denver one, the Lodell one's pretty fun. Oh yeah. When is the last time you visited? Or do you even go to see the, go out to that scene anymore? I was in the rooftop of Whiskey Row here in Nashville maybe two months ago.

[00:12:14] It was our tour assistant, it was her bachelorette party. So we all came down there and we all dressed, I should say the hot guy's nights went down there because it was a 90s themed party. But it was cool.

[00:12:24] I hadn't been on the rooftop during the day in a while when it was just a nice day out and you could see all the other rooftops full of people. And I mean, I just get it. I, you live near for 30 years now.

[00:12:32] There's plenty of times I complain about the traffic and people moving in and all that stuff. But then you get downtown, you get to the lower Broadway and you're like, you understand why. You understand why this town is so popular. It's so fun.

[00:12:42] I can't think of a more fun town to visit for three days than Nashville. I mean, it's just, it's Disneyland down there. It's so much, if you like country music, it's so many songs being sung and people that you never met.

[00:12:55] But you had this, I remember when I was 17 and went to a Garth Brooks concert, it was I was in a room full of strangers, but we all love country music. And that right away was like a 90% connection.

[00:13:05] It's like, I don't know you, but I know you because you love this. I love this. We could be friends. And we were by the end of the show. And that's what Nashville does.

[00:13:11] It brings a bunch of strangers together that have this one thing that they're so passionate about. And you leave this town with a lot of new friends every time you show up. And we personally love hot country nights. Are they going to make a resurgence?

[00:13:23] The nights, I can't get rid of them. They've padlocked their van to the back of our bus. So wherever we go, they go. And they go on stage after drunk on a plane when the show's over. They call that headlining. We call that trespassing.

[00:13:36] But they come out there and they ruin the night. It was always a great night. Hit it out of the park and then the nights come on there and offend a lot of people.

[00:13:43] But yes, they will be out there on the road this summer singing the hits, closing the show out. So yeah, no new music in store. They had something come out last year with Lainey Wilson, a little song called Harassment. It was a pretty good song.

[00:14:01] But yeah, the nights will be on the road this summer for sure. So if you don't like us, come see the nights. And just one more question. Yeah. What is something that's still on your bucket list that you haven't done yet? Gosh, it's a great question.

[00:14:13] You know, it's like doing this for as long as I have. There's things I always want to do, which is to play Bridgestone Arena and sell that out. Always want to play my hometown arena in Arizona and sell that out.

[00:14:22] Never imagined playing Madison Square Garden and selling that out. That's like a dream come true. I don't, I think this point for me, it's just about I love my band so much. Love our crew so much. Love what we've created so much. I just love doing this.

[00:14:34] And I don't need to have some sort of like big thing to check off the list anymore. I just have a lot of gratitude for what we get to do. I know how hard it is to do at this level.

[00:14:41] How many people would love to be doing what we're doing. So for me, it's about just staying in touch with that joy and wonder and sense of gratitude that comes with doing this. And it's pretty easy to do that.

[00:14:50] You get out there in the road with your people and it's like, it's so fun. And so I don't, I played all over Europe. I'm headed back over there next year. I think I don't, I feel like it's, I feel guilty saying I don't have like anything

[00:15:02] to check off on the bucket list. But I think there's a lesson in there of just like knowing when you got a good thing and just being appreciative of that. Living in the present. Yeah. One more quick one. What's on your tour rider? Anything fun?

[00:15:15] Honestly, I go through the rider a lot and try to like cross stuff off, things off because it gets to be a little ridiculous. Stuff keeps getting added. Nothing gets taken off it.

[00:15:21] And I feel like a jerk showing up at a venue and it's like, we've got this list this long of like stuff. I'm like, guys, do we need to have all this stuff on there?

[00:15:27] So I try to get a good whiskey every day just to have something to share with friends that come out and visit us. Gotta have that ice. Gotta have that cold beer. You know, no, no, we don't do the green M&Ms. No, nothing crazy like that.

[00:15:41] But yeah, just some drinks. Really, as long as we have some drinks backstage, life will be good. Yeah, a nice. You gotta have drinks and ice. Well, thank you so much for your time. I'm looking forward to seeing the full show in Nashville. Yes, please do. September.

[00:15:54] And if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, be sure to. Thank you so much.