Only in country music can you compare an old pickup truck and an old guitar to your wife and turn it into a love song... Thank God for country music.
— Dierks Bentley
I wrote that song 'Black,' and it was just this idea that I had been married for 10 years. Everyone talks about 'happily ever after,' but there's so much more to it than that.
I feel like I've got a nice little niche where I stay just below the radar, which is perfect. I just don't want to be known for anything other than music.
If you got in my truck, you were listening to country music, and that's the way it was for a long time. I'm a little more open to other sources of music now, a lot more. But for the formative years, I was just very into country.
I put a lot of pressure on myself. I tell my wife when she's listening to my songs that the slightest hint of whether she likes it or not puts the pressure on me.
People are gravitating towards Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders because they are doing their own thing. I think people are trying to cut out the middle man and just get to the source and get away from Washington politics.
I love singing fun songs; I've built a career on them.
I can act... well, kind of. I'm comfortable in front of a camera.
It's not that you can do this calculated move to try to further your career. You just follow what's in your heart, and later you look back and go, 'I was either really dumb or really smart, I can't believe I did that.'
I want to be free to be any version of me I feel like being. I don't want to be McDonald's that serves the same food every time.
I also was a huge 'Dukes of Hazzard' fan. I used to have T-shirts that said 'Dierks of Hazzard' custom-made.
I'm a huge fan of Billy Idol. I spiked my hair every day like him in 7th and 8th grade.
When you go to the Opry for a show or hear it on the radio, you get the whole circle of country music.
My dad and grandpa were in the army and as a country singer you're constantly playing at military bases all across the country and meeting soldiers and their families and hearing their stories.
I always say the best applause you can get is when you walk from backstage up to your microphone at a concert. It's also nice to walk up to the mike at an awards show, and that applause is great, too, but the best is when your fans are cheering for you.
No, as an artist, you have to be free to explore all the corners of your heart. There are no boundaries.
And if I want to get involved in choosing sides, I usually pick hockey or football.
I discovered early on that I was more of a strummer than a picker.
I put a lot of time into making sure my relationship with my family is well taken care of because I want to be as successful as a father as I am as an entertainer.
Where I'm at in my relationship with my wife or my family and life in general, I feel like it all comes out in the music. Hopefully, it's always there, but in an ambiguous and abstract way and not real straightforward.
In my 30s, I became more open to music other than country or bluegrass.
The people I always loved listening to had a little bit of dirt under their fingernails because they had done some living and had these stories to talk about.
Most of my read on America is through looking through the front windshield of a bus and hanging out with country music fans backstage.
I try to make sure to get off the bus as much as I can, try to do something during the day that's local to where I am, whether it's hiking or fishing.
I got into rock music at thirteen, listening to Van Halen, learned how to play the electric guitar.
I do see the world as being different for girls - especially now, having daughters.
That's what we get to do as songwriters, right? You get to explore stuff.
I'm a member of the George Jones fan club, and I'm a member of U2's fan club.
And I'm the biggest country fan there is, but I'm always a little cautious of a slower song or just a song with subject matter.
Country music is always changing but the Opry is always there to serve as a lighthouse for what country music really is. The past, present and future is all encompassed by not only the physical structure of the building but also the radio show.
You can't write about stuff you don't know about. You have to live it. You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Live life to be a good songwriter.
I'm part of the party, getting the crowd fired up, singing songs, pouring drinks, whatever it takes to get them to have a good time. When I walk into the meet-and-greet, someone's always going to have a story, a sad story or a happy story.
As a songwriter, you might write every day and throughout the course of a year you might get four songs that are really special.
I mean, the last thing I want to do is be involved in politics.
I never met Johnny Cash personally, but I feel like I did because I listened to so much of his music, and even though he's gone, it's still there: you can go pull a vinyl record out and hear his personal thoughts and his voice and feel connected to him.
If someone wants a picture, I'm so honored and so flattered, and I hope I have a reputation as someone who goes out of his way to do those kinds of things.
I don't think my music has changed to reflect getting married or having kids. But... if you want to continue to write your own songs, you've got to find deeper stuff to write about. You've got to go to different places.
I'm surrounded by all these strong women - my publicist, my manager, and my wife - and sometimes I think that women are more evolved than men, and they are able to process a heartache better.
Being married is one thing, but having kids will completely change you. I still go out and hang with my buddies, but having two daughters will completely change your perspective on the world.
My wife is cool enough to let me write about personal things, to be a songwriter exploring the shadowy sides of love.
A typical day for me on tour is a marathon - it's like five days rolled into one.
I really can't tell you the feeling I feel, like, being on stage: it's such a high; it's like running a marathon. You just can't get that feeling anywhere else.
Whether lyrically or musically, it reaches in there and grabs your soul. That's the stuff I gravitate toward.
I think I've claimed the right to be any version of me that I want to be.
When I was 13, I was just figuring out how to play 'Eruption,' poorly, by Eddie Van Halen.
I like big shows, a lot of volume and a lot of energy. I love electric instruments. But I do love mixing those with bluegrass instruments and cranking those up, too, with a little bit of that rock energy.
I try to make an album that reflects what I love about country music. It's not just all about happy parties all the time. There are some sad songs.
Patty Griffin is iconic, and there's no other word to really describe her. She is iconic for a lot of people - not only for me but for a lot of fans. Her voice is one of a kind, and she's such an important figure in the American music scene.
That's what I love about Nashville and the music community - seeing kids around acoustic music and bluegrass picking parties is the best.
But as far as being an American and loving this country and getting a chance to travel across it every day and meeting people on the road and folks in the military, I love this country on so many different levels.
