Dierks Bentley plans to take fans up ‘The Mountain’
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The man who gave us “Drunk on a Plane” is flying around the country these days on the Mountain High Tour — in the pilot or co-pilot’s seat. It’s the Iron Maiden style of touring. “Yeah, they had a 747 or something like that,” says Dierks Bentley. “I’m not flying anything that big. It just allows us to get a little more time at home before the run starts, and it keeps our wives and girlfriends happy, and then we come out on the stage with maximum energy and excitement and positivity. It makes a great day even better.”
The 42-year-old country star from Arizona is on tour with his just-released ninth album, “The Mountain,” which was inspired by time spent reflecting in the mountains of Telluride, Colo., where he wrote it and returned to record it.
“I think coming off of 2017 it was a heavy year for me and for a lot of country fans,” he says. “There was a lot that happened, a lot of hard things that happened and tragedies. I spend a lot of time with my fans backstage, I hear a lot of stories of hardship, but also perseverance and determination. It’s kind of tough but kind of inspiring. I was out in the mountains and just feeling a lot of gratitude for life and living and my fans and my friends and my family, and I just wrote an album that centered around With: Brothers Osborne, LANCO. Where: KeyBank Pavilion, Burgettstown. When: 7 p.m. Friday. Tickets: $39 to $98; ticketmaster.com. that: The way you feel when you’re on a hike, you get away from all the distractions and you have a lot of gratitude.”
It has a very different vibe than his 2016 album, “Black,” which was a deep and sometimes dark dive into relationships.
“‘Black’ was about my wife and being married for 10 years and just love — what happens after you get married, the ups and downs of marriage. This is just about being alive, about feeling good, being in the lawn seats with your beer, blowing off steam, just feeling great. That’s what I feel now. I really love my fans, love my family, love life. The album was like a celebration of that, and the live show is as well.”
One of the centerpiece songs for him is “Living,” a rising ballad about how there