Mountain man Country superstar Dierks Bentley talks touring, evolution in lyrics and why albums are still important By: Erin Lebar  Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Jan. 21, 2019

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This article was published 21/01/2019 (2234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some people find solace in a cabin in the woods, others prefer relaxing with a drink in hand on the beach, but for country music superstar Dierks Bentley, the mountains are his most desired destination. 

The Arizona-born, Nashville-based singer’s new (and ninth) album, The Mountain, was largely inspired by, and written and recorded in, the mountains of Colorado. In terms of content, this record follows the path he started with 2016’s Black, veering away from his party-anthem past, instead diving deep into more introspective, reflective ideas about life.

For many, making this kind of tonal shift could be a career killer, but Bentley presents himself and his work with such genuine enthusiasm that it feels wrong to write it off as a superficial evolution. 

And his fans seems to agree; The Mountain went right to No.1 on the Billboard Country charts, his seventh career No.1 debut, and the lead single, Woman, Amen, became his 17th No.1.

Bentley, 43, has already completed the Mountain High tour supporting the record, hitting up 30 cities and finishing with a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl in October, but he’s already back on the road again with a new show, the Burning Man tour, which will land in Winnipeg Tuesday at Bell MTS Place. 

Bentley took some time before the tour kicked off last week to chat with the Free Press about the new record and why he still prefers focusing on albums rather than singles. 

Free Press: There hasn’t been a huge amount of turnaround since your last tour, are you feeling ready and refreshed even though you’ve only had a couple months off the road?

Dierks Bentley: Yeah, I feel great. I went to Colorado for three weeks, and just waking up every morning and looking up at the mountains, it’s really therapeutic. I’m back in Nashville now and we call it The Blerg, but I call it the Nashville Grey. It’s just like this low, grey cloud cover for days on end, so I’m actually really ready to start flying and moving around and seeing some blue sky and feel that energy from the fans.

FP: Is this tour going to be much different than the stage show for The Mountain High Tour? Any changes?

DB: Yeah, there are. The intro is totally different, the way the show starts is totally different. Obviously Jon Pardi brings a totally different section in the middle of the show and I’ve also got Tenille (Townes), she and I are going to do a song together. I kept the pieces that I loved but we definitely, for our fans, even though it’s not a repeat of the same markets, for the fans and for us, really, we want to do some new stuff.

FP: How involved are you in the tour creation process? I know some artists prefer to delegate that to designers or engineers or whoever else.

DB: They do? That’s possible? (laughs) No, it’s all me. I mean, I give all credit to the people that I work with, but it all starts with me and my ideas, and I have a great team that I work with that makes all these things come true. I’m a kid who used to draw stage plots on cocktail napkins when I was playing in bars and thinking, ‘It would be so cool to have the amps over here and drum risers there,’ so I’ve always been scheming and plotting and planning. As much as I love the fans and the faces and the energy, I also love walking around backstage seeing all the semi-trucks, like, wow, that’s so cool.

FP: So obviously we should talk about the new record, The Mountain – what is it about the mountains that you find so inspiring?

DB: I think it’s just… for 25 years now I’ve lived in Nashville and I’ve watched the city grow, and it’s been a wonderful city for me… but I’m from out west, I’m from Arizona, and those mountains are in my blood. The disconnect from nature that comes from living in a city and then living on the road — I may be coming to Winnipeg, but I don’t see much, I may just end up seeing the arena, I don’t get a chance to do stuff. So, there’s something about being out there that just recharges me. I think everyone needs that… Kenny Chesney likes the beach, everyone’s got their place and mine is the mountains.

FP: You’ve said this album is a true album in that it’s meant to be listened to front to back, and I think fans really appreciate the thought that goes into the construction of a full, complete musical thought. But in an industry that is so focused on big hit singles, especially in country music, why did you shift your focus to the big picture rather than individual songs?

DB: You know, I’m sitting in this little room in Nashville that’s like my office, and there’s a few of my CDs over there that I give out to people who want one, and that CD, there’s so many albums out there and people could have forgotten about mine, but I haven’t, I have to live with it, so I really make it for me more than anybody else. I want to be able to look over there in 5, 10, 15 years and go, ‘Yeah I remember making that album, we didn’t cut any corners, we didn’t make any compromises, I did the work.’ Just like with all of this stuff, it all comes down to doing the work. And then you get a chance to enjoy it for the rest of your life and feel proud.

And I know it’s a singles world, and I’m not one of those people that’s like, ‘You gotta buy the album!’ Consume the music however you want. Consume the concert however you want; if you want to watch the whole concert through your phone? Hey, whatever’s good for you. I don’t care. But for me personally, I’m going to make albums, and that’s the fun part… it’s fun crafting that, it’s like writing a book, but musically. I enjoy the process, I enjoy the result. I love it when fans buy the album and follow along and get into the story I’m trying to weave and everything, but I’m cool with however people want to listen to it.

FP: I read that you wrote a huge amount of songs for this record and then did a cull. What is that paring-down process like for you? I imagine it gets really difficult when you get down to the last 20 or so.

DB: Yeah, it is! I think the key to the whole deal is writing as many as you possibly can and then trying to just make some hard choices. I think a good album is one where you have to fight with your producer about what songs make it, there’s going to be some hurt feelings, ‘That song should really be on there,’ ‘I don’t think it should be.’ That’s good. What helped me in making this album was having an idea of what I wanted to do, being in Colorado, writing the album. I’ve had years where I’ve written 70 songs like a shotgun blast, and you just pick ones that fit that particular album. But this one, it was like, ‘This is what I want to do, here’s the location, bring the writers out to Colorado, let’s all write together.’ And we wrote 14 songs, and seven of them made the album from that particular writing batch. I did a lot of other stuff along the way, but that was an important part of it.

FP: As a songwriter, things have taken a bit more of an introspective turn the last couple of albums for you. Is this a natural instinct, to want to dig deeper into concepts and feelings, or do you have to push yourself to get there?

DB: For me, it’s weird… I think you just need to write wherever you are in your life… For me it’s like, this is where I am; I got three kids, I have a crazy travel schedule, and, like the song Burning Man, which I didn’t write but really gravitated toward, it’s that ying and yang of life, that’s where I am. This album is more about life than it is about love songs; it’s more about life songs and the wisdom that comes from being in your 40s. I mean, I still get a chance to go on stage and act like an idiot and shotgun beers and I’m very familiar with that part of my life and I tap into it really easily, but when I’m making albums, it’s like planting a garden. I have a lot more dirt, better dirt, to work with now than I did when I was in my 20s. More interesting soil to take things a step further.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel

Erin Lebar
Manager of audience engagement for news

Erin Lebar spends her time thinking of, and implementing, ways to improve the interaction and connection between the Free Press newsroom and its readership.

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