From the back row to center stage
A return to a familiar venue for Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley was 16 and living in Phoenix when seeing Garth Brooks at what then was called America West Arena taught him everything a country star would ever need to know about reaching the back rows of a room that size.
In part because that’s where his seat was. And in part because that’s just how much that concert spoke to Bentley.
Twenty-five years later, Bentley is about to bring what Billboard named the hottest tour of 2017 to that same venue, now called Talking Stick Resort Arena. It marks the singer’s first appearance on that stage, and that makes it a pretty big deal for the multiplatinum superstar who launched his career after moving to Nashville in the ’90s.
“It’s crazy how this tour is shaping up the way it has,” he says, “to start the year off in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena,
which is a really important arena to me — I’ve spent a lot of time watching hockey there — and then to wrap it up, really, in Phoenix, where I grew up watching a lot of Suns basketball.”
The singer saw his share of basketball in that arena.
“I remember the Dan Majerle years,” he recalls, “and (Charles) Barkley coming in, and of course the Steve Nash years. I watched a lot of games there. So it’s a big deal to get a chance to headline that arena. It’s probably one of the most important dates of my entire career.”
Especially when you factor in that Garth Brooks concert.
“I was in the very back row,” Bentley says. “I could almost touch the roof of the arena, my seat was so high up. But the great entertainer Garth was, I felt like he was singing right to me.”
The other thing that has him so excited about this weekend’s show is that, unlike every other time he’s headlined here, it’s not outside. As Bentley explains with a laugh: “When you’re playing in Arizona in August, it’s nice when you’re inside. The last time was 117 degrees.”
In the course of a 20-minute conversation, Bentley talks about his current tour, on which he and his bandmates have been coming out before the first act every night to play a set of bluegrass music incognito, and his plans to try to get a jump on writing his new album after playing Phoenix.
Question: I hear fans would do well not to show up late.
Answer: This will be our first indoor appearance with our ridiculously dressed bluegrass band. I don’t know what the name is gonna be yet. We don’t decide until about 10 minutes before we walk on stage. But it’ll be something to do with Arizona or Phoenix.
We’ve been having fun out there. We’re always jamming backstage anyway before the show. And we tend to lean toward that music. I’ve always loved acoustic bluegrass music, and I have great players in my band.
Ben Helson on guitar, who used to play with Ricky Skaggs, he’s an incredible acoustic player. He actually plays mandolin in this band. Tim Sergent, our steel player, is a great banjo player. They’ve all had great experience at playing that kind of music.
I’m trying to think of where the very first time we did this was. But I was very nervous walking out there onstage, because the majority of fans have no idea what’s going on. They think Jon Pardi is getting ready to walk onstage. They get excited when they see a band onstage.
Then, they see it’s us, and they’re like, “Ooh, what is this? I don’t know if I really like this yet.” But we go out there and we have a great time. There’s some jokes that go along with it. We think it’s pretty funny.
We’re not taking up Jon Pardi’s time. He goes on at 7 regardless. We go on at 6:45. It’s kind of a nice thing for him. I wish when I was the first of the openers on a tour, the headliner went out and opened for me. That would’ve been wonderful. So I don’t think he minds at all.
It’s really good for our hardcore fans that have been coming out for so long. They get to the venue early and they’re waiting in the front row. There’s a pit. So it’s kind of a fun thing for us to give them
a little extra to say thanks for their support.
Q: That sounds great. And you have a character name when you do that?
A: My character’s name is Dirty Doug, yeah. He looks pretty dirty. He’s got the beard and the mullet. And he’s got a pearl-snap shirt on, but there’s only a few snaps snapped.
I have these great bolo ties that my dad used to have, these thunderbird bolo ties. So it’s actually kind of a perfect opportunity to finally wear one. I don’t think this would be the configuration he would expect me to wear them in. But nonetheless, they’re getting some use.
I do an acoustic performance at 6:15 for the hardcore fans who pay a little extra to come out and get some drinks and food, and we play five songs for about 200 people acoustically. Then we race from there, change clothes and go onstage, because the whole band does the acoustic thing with me.
It’s so funny to see the people who just saw you literally five minutes ago in the acoustic tent looking at us like, “Wait a second. There’s no way these could be the same guys.” We literally change that quick. So it’s really busy before the show. There’s a lot going on. By the time the actual show rolls around, we’ve already been at it for around three hours.
It really is the most fun tour. I love seeing the progression that my band and crew have gone through, really, in the past five years. We started headlining in 2014. Now we’re one of the few that get to go out there around the country and play these amphitheaters and arenas, and we’re selling a lot of them out.
And having Jon Pardi and Cole Swindell on the bill has been a big part of it. They’re great guys. There’s only five shows left.
I’m looking forward to the fall and working on new music, diving into a whole different scene, maybe laying off some of the Red Bull, catching up on some sleep, trying to go a little more healthy. But it’ll be missed, because it’s been a lot of fun.
This last run is LA, San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque and Denver. These are all cities that were really significant in my childhood. So it’s a big deal to end the run out West. And certainly playing America West Arena, or whatever they call it these days.
My last memory of a basketball game there, for real, is watching Cheap Shot Bob Horry of the Spurs hip-check Steve Nash out of bounds. He did that and Amar’e Stoudemire stood up. He got suspended for three games because of that. And we ended up losing that series. That was my last playoff memory of the Suns. Q: So are you still a Suns fan? A: I am. I was at a game not too long ago with my buddy Ian Lopatin, who does a company called Spiritual Gangster. He’s always on the floor watching those games, and I got a chance to go back and mosey around in the players’ room with some people. They actually have a lot of good players right now, a lot of young players
Q: This tour topped Billboard’s list of hottest tours of 2017. That had to feel good.
A: It’s wild. Last year was really good, too. And the year before that. It’s like a NASCAR driver. You get to the front of the pack, and you still drive the same way as if you were in the back. You’re just too nervous to even take your foot off the gas. And I feel like this year, for the first time ever, I’ve been able to maybe relax for a second and enjoy the feeling of “Man, this is awesome.” Everyone has worked so hard to get here. We’ve been grinding for so long.
And there were times in my career when I wanted it to happen earlier. I wanted to headline in 2006, 2007, 2008. I thought that was gonna be the big moment there. I didn’t realize I was only 10 years off (laughs). I don’t think I would have taken it for granted back then, but I certainly don’t take it for granted now.
I know what we’ve been through and how slim an opportunity it is to get to this spot where people are spending money on these tickets and T-shirts and beer. They might bring some family members. They’ve gotta pay for parking. They’re investing their lives in what you do, and we don’t take that for granted at all.
Q: You said it would have been nice to headline 10 years earlier. Do you think you were ready for those kinds of venues back then?
A: No. I wasn’t ready, man. It all comes down to songs, you know? I learned that when we went back and made the bluegrass record in 2010. I came back and started making records again and realized that just because it’s a Number 1 song doesn’t mean it’s a “hit.”
There’s a difference between having a song that goes to Number 1 at radio and having a song that really connects with fans. And finding songs that are not just hits, but hits for you, that personally tell your story a little bit and make that personal connection with the fans in a place that’s already really crowded with a lot of information and songs and social media. How do you get through all that stuff? So just finding the right songs and making great albums that stand on their own is really the key.
And at the time, I didn’t always have all the tools I needed in my toolbox to go out there and do a show like this that is non-stop entertainment and every song is engaging for an hour and a half. I had put so much time into thinking about live shows and how to attack the stage and sometimes leave the stage and literally grab fans and get them engaged in the show. So I thought I was ready, and I really wasn’t, I guess.
But we’re overly ready and have been for a number of years now. And it shows. It feels good. And not just for me.
This incarnation of my band really started in 2010. Some of the guys have been around longer than that. But a lot of the guys came in right around 2010, and they were there for all the outdoor casino gigs at 2 in the afternoon, parking-lot gigs, and they’d all roll their sleeves up and we’d push through it together. It feels really good.
They’re all in San Diego right now, chilling out. We have three days off between the San Francisco show and LA, but I wanted to get home. I recharge best by getting back here, seeing Cass and the kiddos. So I’m gonna hang here for a couple days and head back to LA Thursday and try to finish this run as strong as possible. Q: How old are your kids now? A: Eight, 6 and 3. Q: Those are great ages. A: Yeah, man. Growing up. They’re still at a great age. Still a lot of fun. There’s nothing like having young kids. No phones. No BS. Still just insulated in some ways, which is good.
Q: Are there artists that, for you, exemplify what you hope to bring to a live situation, acts that inspired you when you saw them, where it left you thinking, “That’s the kind of concert I’d like to give”?
A: I think a lot of it goes back to being 16 at America West Arena, watching Garth. There’s other music that got me into country, but Garth was really the first arena country concert I saw, and it definitely had a big impact on my show. He really set the bar for the kind of energy and engagement that I want to have.
Whether there’s video cameras or not, I want to be able to reach out to everybody in that room, including the top, the back and the sides. And there’s a way to do that. You develop a sense where you learn how to feel the room and reach out to different sections at different times, always scanning the crowd for reactions.
Ernest Tubb used to talk about that, how you can’t sing over the tops of people’s heads. You have to lower your gaze and stare into their faces. I really draw a lot of energy from that, taking it from one person and shooting it back out to someone else. Keep doing that over the course of the night, you’re gonna reach everybody.
So Garth did have a big influence on the energy and the engagement that I want to get into a live show. But I draw little bits and pieces from everybody. I’ve always enjoyed watching to see what people are doing out there, to see what’s their way of connecting with a crowd.
I’ve always said I never want it to feel like a show. I want it to feel more like an experience that we’re all going through together, us and the audience. So we try to keep it low on stage shticks and high on genuine fun.
We’re having a lot of fun on stage, and we always do. It feels like the six of us are living out our dreams. So we’re all really present and full of gratitude and awe and wonder. That’s what makes it the best show for us and for them.
Q: You definitely seemed like you were having fun at Country Thunder this year.
A: Oh, man. Had a lot of friends out. A beautiful setting. And I got a chance to stop by Whiskey Row and check out that whole situation. It was a really great night. But they all are, man.
Some days are not a lot of fun sometimes. But once you start doing the meetand-greets and hanging out before the show, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad day. From the second my foot hits that stage, I just get this sense of unbelievable joy to be there doing it.
Q: Do you have any other plans in Arizona while you’re here?
A: Not too much. I’ll probably head to Colorado afterward, go up in the mountains for a little bit and try to work on some music for the next record before we go to Albuquerque and Denver.
I want to see my mom a little bit on Sunday, but then probably head out. My mom wants me to rent a Cessna 182 or something and fly over Lake Powell and drop my dad’s ashes off in the lake. I said, “All right, if I can squeeze that in the schedule.” But I think I may hold off on that and do it a little later.
Q: So you are already thinking about the next release?
A: I’m just thinking about getting started on writing, just working on stuff and seeing if any ideas take hold. Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut.
You just have to write a lot, throw efficiency out the window and be resigned to the fact that you’re probably gonna write 70 songs and hopefully get five that fit into some sort of theme that you’re trying to tell.