During his recent appearance on the 'Superstar Power Hour' with Katie Neal, Dierks Bentley shares he plays his music for his kids before releasing it to see what they think.
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00:00Back with Brand New Music to keep us company this week. Grammy-nominated Dierks Bentley,
00:03how are you? Thank you. I'm great. Just, yeah, I'm so excited about having new music and of
00:08course getting a chance to make all the rounds and see friends I haven't seen in a while. One
00:12of the great things about new singles, new music, is you get to go see a lot of folks in the biz,
00:18you know? So yeah, it's been a good, it's been a great day catching up with everybody.
00:20Yeah, it's good. It's nice to see you. I was trying to remember the last time I saw you,
00:23like what was going on in your world? Like, how have you been? How are the kids been? What are
00:26they each, I know they each have their things. Yeah, it's the same. It's, yeah, it's like a lot,
00:31lots happened, but the same time looking back on it, still the same old stuff, just a lot of
00:34dadding, a lot of driving people around. A lot of, you know, my son does a lot of travel hockey,
00:39so I've been to Notre Dame here last month. I've been to Phoenix for that as well. Travel
00:44hockey is no joke. One of my best friends, her son plays for the Mustangs in Peoria, Illinois,
00:48and like they are gone. Yeah, and I have gigs mixed in, like I was in Phoenix for him with
00:54that, but I had a gig in D.C. around the inauguration time, so I had to catch a red
00:58eye. I was cheering him on. I caught a flight at 1 a.m., landed in D.C. at 7 in the morning,
01:05there all day long, played a gig that night, had to get back to the airport at 3.45,
01:09back out to Phoenix, so I have like gigs mixed in with like these weekends. It's like
01:12a lot of Southwest miles getting accumulated in the middle of a,
01:17yeah, anyway. But it's awesome that you're able to do both. Yeah. Like I'm sure you're
01:21stretched a little bit than right now, but also like Knox will never forget that you were there
01:24for everything. I do it all, yeah. I'm like the biggest fan of the Wright Brothers. I have a
01:28sponsorship with Cessna, and I'm a pilot. I own a little prop plane, but I also have a sponsorship
01:34with those guys and use a jet, but also fly every airline there is. Just whatever can get me where
01:40I need to be, you know, as fast as possible, I don't care. Just throw me in the luggage compartment
01:44and move me around. All right, so Knox is playing lots of hockey. What are the girls up to?
01:48Well, my daughter, my oldest daughter, just sang the national anthem at her high school.
01:52That's a big varsity basketball game, and she crushed it, and she got an invite to come sing
01:56at Vandy for one of their basketball games, so really exciting. Yeah, because she's been coming
02:01out on stage for years now, like she's got nothing for her to do the national anthem.
02:05She's so brave, and we don't really, I've never really pushed her. I wish, I always tell my kids
02:09like, I wish one of you guys would sing because I know people in that business. Let's do some
02:13Nepo stuff. I can help. Why do you want to be a hockey player? I don't know anybody in that. I've
02:18had to learn a lot of people. I know a lot of people in hockey now, and my middle daughter's
02:21in the children's theater. She's asked me about getting an agent and stuff. I'm like, I don't know.
02:24I don't know children's theater. Like calling William Morris here, like the music, William
02:28Morris, my booking agency. Theater, can you help me with this? Who do we know? Yeah, nobody.
02:36But I love that she's asking for an agent. She's got an agenda here.
02:39She has it. She is driven. She has it all mapped out. I love all that stuff. I love watching them
02:45do what they do and supporting them in any way that I can, just like all parents. And for me,
02:50though, yeah, just new music, planning a new tour this summer, and got great folks coming out with
02:56us on that tour, and new music. This whole album will be out sometime this summer, I assume. So
03:01fun, just getting it all geared back, getting it going again.
03:04Yeah, very fun. This new song, She Hates Me, coming out on Valentine's Day. Set this song up.
03:09What is this song about? Talk about a little bit.
03:11This is the anti-Valentine's Day. I've never liked Valentine's Day. The fact this is my single
03:15coming out on Valentine's Day is such a nice full circle moment for me because, you know,
03:19we're down here in Lower Broadway. By the way, the studio is amazing. The location,
03:22you're in the heartbeat of what I've always said is what makes Nashville what it is.
03:27I used to play gig at the Station Inn just up the street on Valentine's Day. I did it like three
03:30Valentine's Days in a row before I had a record deal. And it was literally the anti-Valentine's
03:35Day show. You had to wear black to get in. And it's for all the people that just did not like
03:39Valentine's Day. And I never did like it as a single guy because I feel like you're dating
03:43somebody and it's going pretty good, whatever. It's going where it's supposed to go. It's moving
03:46at the pace it's supposed to move at. And then this checkpoint shows up. You got to pass through
03:52the guard gate. Did you get the right card? Or maybe you got to buy jewelry, or maybe you didn't
03:56get enough, or you said too much. It's like I never liked it. So the fact we have a song out
04:01for all the people that are like, you know, maybe they don't have a Valentine. Maybe it's not the
04:06funnest holiday for them. We have a song that they can get behind.
04:10Wait, so you hate Valentine's Day. Does your wife hate Valentine's Day?
04:12I don't hate it. I just don't like it.
04:12Well, you're anti-Valentine's Day.
04:14One is like, it's such a hallmark.
04:15It's not for you.
04:15It's a hallmark.
04:16But what about your wife? Does she like Valentine's Day?
04:18No. My wife does not fall for any of that stuff. I used to bring songs home. And I'd be like,
04:22look, I wrote this love song for you. And she'd be like, no you didn't. You're just trying to
04:25write a hit song. And the girl in the song has blonde hair and she's from Texas. I'm like, well,
04:31it's going to be Arizona. But Texas, it's a better chance for being a hit if we put Texas in
04:35the song. So she doesn't fall for any of that stuff. But when we got married, we just ran down
04:41to Mexico and found a judge and her interpreter in Mexico. So she's not overly sentimental like
04:47that. But that sounds so bad. It makes me sound like I'm not like a romantic. I'm romantic in
04:52other ways. I just don't fall for the kind of... It works if it works in your relationship. Like
04:58if one of you hates Valentine's Day and one of you loves Valentine's Day, that's where it's hard.
05:01It's so hard. That's the thing, though. She might say like, oh, it's just Valentine's Day. Like,
05:05don't don't it's not big. Don't worry about it. Right. But that's not what she means.
05:08This is another thing. This is another thing with guys. But it's like we're working through
05:12these mental gymnastics. Like, does she mean that? Am I supposed to go big? How? I don't know.
05:17It's a tough time. I completely understand. So talk about how this song
05:20found its way to you. Did you write this song? I wrote this song. Yeah, I wrote this song.
05:25I was telling someone I kind of wrote the song in between real songs. I'd written a song with
05:30some great songwriters in town and we're getting ready to write this next song that we had an idea
05:34already started for. And somewhere in the break between the two, you know, someone's getting a
05:38glass of water or this that also in this little thing kind of started being played on someone's
05:41guitar and we all started laughing. Oh, my gosh, this idea of she hates me. And we just it's almost
05:47like a songwriter song. It's like it was written to see who could make who laugh more, you know,
05:51in the room from the four of us, like just no agenda, not trying to be something, you know,
05:57a lot of times you go to write a song. It's like, I'm looking for this. I'm trying to do that. This
06:00was literally four guys just goofing around. But I'm goofing around with like an Ashley Gorley and
06:06a Ross Kopperman, Chase McGill, you know, three of the best in the business. Yeah, nice people to
06:10be goofing around with. It's like you're goofing around with Conor McDavid and playing hockey or
06:14something or, you know, goofing around LeBron James. These guys are the best at what they do.
06:18And so it ends up being this really fun song. And I played it for my kids. You know, they're
06:22always a good barometer. They know music really well. And they always like it because if it's
06:27catchy, the kids will. Well, they have like this short attention spans, right? They're used to
06:32like seven seconds of YouTube shorts and stuff. And so I wouldn't cut it. And then it just came
06:37out so well. And I really, at that point, kind of remove myself in the process and let the team
06:44it's, you know, come up see what should be the single because I'm just way too inside.
06:48And I've really learned a lot of my success and everything I've done is
06:51having a great band, you know, trying to surround myself with musicians that are better than me,
06:55which sadly isn't that hard to do. But also back here in Nashville, you know,
06:59work with great folks. Everyone's very collaborative talking, you know,
07:02thinking about it. And I always say I never make music for the fans. I'm always making it for me
07:06and trying to write something that excites me. But when it comes time to pick a single,
07:10I certainly want to pick something that's going to move them one direction or the other, whether
07:15it could be a love song, you know, or it could be a serious song. In this case,
07:18I just felt like the right time to maybe put out something, especially being Valentine's Day,
07:22just put out something that's kind of a wink, fun, happy, not happy, but it's just a fun song.
07:28It's very, I have a history of having some fun songs.
07:31And it feels it's such a dark song. Like I was like, this could have come out like maybe like
07:34a couple different times on a couple different out like it feels familiar, but new and fun. Like,
07:39it's Yeah, and it's hard to do.
07:40Yeah. And I just got the video back. And the video is really great.
07:43Oh, fine. I'm assuming that you like really like
07:46I'll drop you the video. But it's funny. It's really it's, uh, let's just say the girl in the
07:53video is really unhappy with me. She's not happy. She's out to get me.
07:58I love that. And then this is the first new music we've heard since Gravel and Gold came out.
08:02Yeah. Which is crazy to think it's been that fast thinking it's been a really long time since I had
08:07new stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Long time, but not a long time. Yeah, we're doing a lot. I have a lot of
08:11singles to draw from. But, you know, I'm always thinking about the live show and the tour. That's
08:15that's everyone has their different reasons for doing this. For me, back when I was playing down
08:19here on Second Avenue, which is we're on right now, which is crazy. I mean, my whole dream was
08:23just to be on a tour bus with a band that says I didn't white lines down the road. It was never
08:28about the Grammys or any award shows or either. It's just being I wanted to be one of the guys
08:33that got to ride a bus and have a band and I still have the same bus I've had since 2003.
08:39Got a lot of the same my drummer and I played at a Market Street Brewery together here, which
08:44was one of the places that the bomb took out. That's modern times with something that's just
08:52happens. But so, yeah, just I'm still going to do that and great guys and have new music out
08:58for the summer tours and be so fun. It's going to be so much fun to talk about because this is
09:01the first music we've heard. What can you say about like this next chapter, this new album,
09:04what you've been working on, like how you're feeling about? Yeah, I really you know, one of
09:09the songs that I don't think is make the record is great. Tom Douglas song. It's all about the
09:14songs that, you know, the song kind of like the song remembers when kind of like that great
09:17Trisha Yearwood song. But it's about you can find it in a song. And I really that's what for me,
09:22just listening to so many outside songs and just writing a lot of songs and letting the
09:26songs kind of dictate what the album was going to be. And it's just it was a great journey. It's
09:30really fun. You know, great song here. A couple of songs I wrote with Stephen Wilson, Jr.,
09:34who I'm a huge fan of. He's just so talented and have some great collaborations and pretty much
09:40an equal mix of songs that I wrote and songs that I, you know, outside songs as well, too.
09:45And that's really the last, I guess, since I started making records again after the Bluegrass
09:50album I put out in 2010 or 11 was just I love finding outside songs. You know, I love writing
09:55them. But there's so many great songwriters in this town. And if you're trying to build a I'll
10:00say if you're trying to build a house like you don't, you know, whether you make the bricks or
10:04someone else makes the bricks, you just want to get the best bricks to build the kind of house
10:07you're trying to build. And, and there's some great, great songwriters in this town and just
10:13really happy to try to find songs that aren't right down the middle more just saying something
10:18a little left or right of center. And I got some good ones. So really excited. Yeah, good.
10:22And then you mentioned the tour a couple times the Broken Branches tour are going to be this summer.
10:26I saw that you got Zach Topp going out with you, which is going to be
10:29Love Zach. He's a Broken Branch. There's a song on this record Broken Branches
10:32off the family tree. It's kind of like bunch of delinquents, you know, that fell off the tree.
10:37And he's definitely one of them. He's funny. Gosh. He's a riot. Yeah, he's really funny. I've listened
10:42well. Yeah, I've known Zach, you know, pre mustache back when I knew of him when he's
10:47doing the bluegrass stuff. And he's a great bluegrass musician. You know, he's unbelievable.
10:52And now in mix with the other thing I love 90s country. So he's just incredible. I had so much
10:56fun with him last year in the road, and asked him to come out this summer and could have gone
11:01anywhere. I'm so glad he chose us. I think it's because my band is is also very museo oriented,
11:06much of bluegrassers in my band as well to a bunch of guys that play with Ricky Skaggs. And
11:11we got Charlie Worsham, CMA musician of the year. So it's a good, it's a good fit. And we're gonna
11:16have so much fun with him. And this band, band Lula, new band. Yeah, really great. Awesome.
11:22Kind of trashy, grassy, swampy. Yeah, yeah. I call it trashy, trashy, grassy, you know,
11:30trashy, grassy, swampy. Yeah, it's gonna be so much fun. Then also you've got row 94 bourbon.
11:36Yeah, I got row 94. Yeah. Super excited about that. I'll take a whiskey plug.
11:39Right. Whiskey plug is great. You got the bar, you have the whiskey now.
11:44Yeah, I got whiskey row. So now I got row whiskey and back in the bar. But yeah, it's just that was
11:48that's been a fun deal. I don't know the the bourbon thing for like a lot of people during
11:53COVID. I, you know, kind of got into like slowing down how quickly I was consuming it and then
11:57actually appreciate it more than usual. I got in some podcasts and books and I've been thinking
12:04for the last 12 years ever since my first bar opened up but I just started the journey of
12:09visiting places and tasting stuff and knew I needed something that was really high quality
12:13but also the right price and was able to get this work at this company Green River in Owensboro,
12:18Kentucky. It's the 10th oldest distillery. I always tell people it's like the station in
12:24of distilleries like the bar here in town this old crappy rundown bar that has great music.
12:31It's just this old beat up distillery that's been around. It's the 10th oldest in Kentucky,
12:34but great people. You know, bourbon people are a lot like, you know, country music characters.
12:39They're just like really interesting people, great stories and backgrounds and history and
12:43lineage. And it's fun. So yeah, I got a 94 four year old whiskey for under 40 bucks. It's a great
12:48collaboration. Pretty awesome. Yeah, you've got those two things. But then like, what's the next
12:52thing you think you'd want to dabble in? Less? I'm not trying to get it. I don't want to get
12:56into stuff. I'm like, I don't want to like, I'm constantly trying to like, just trim it down. But
13:02like a whiskey. I mean, that's just like that. So you're not taking on like a book or a memoir?
13:06No, I watch I'm gonna tell everyone I'm writing a book. So I get all my band guys and crew guys and
13:12everyone I've ever worked with to submit their for being interviewed so I can get my life story in
13:16one place because thanks to whiskey, I don't have much memory of like, you know, too many Jaeger
13:20bombs. I can't really remember what's happened over the last 30 years. So I want to get all
13:24collected one spot and then we'll get Nvidia chips or something to like, implant it in my
13:28brain and I'll have a great working memory of like, how awesome my time in Nashville has been.
13:33I like where you're going with that. Dierks, the new song is so great. We're
13:36so happy to see you as always. I can't wait to like, see the tour this summer,
13:39hear more of the new music. Yeah, I'm so excited to see fans reaction to the song. That's like,
13:43I'm so it'll be more so than ever. It's been it's been a while since I had, you know, a couple years
13:48so just to see how they because when I put drunk in a plane out like the first time I played drunk
13:51in a plane acoustic for a crowd. It was not like I remember walking off going, I don't really get
13:57that. Do they like that song? You know, and then like, once the real version came out,
14:02it took off. So it's always fun seeing if what you think is going to happen happens. So
14:06sometimes it takes a minute. I feel like also when there's like a little bit of humor infused
14:09in a song. Yeah, this is Zach Topp when he came in, like, I'll sing along to one of his songs.
14:12I can't think of the one right now. But I'm like, it took me a minute like, Oh, this is really fun.
14:16Yeah, yeah, I watched I sent I have a guy that buddy of mine, I send songs to him. I sent him
14:20this silly thought and he goes, man, I just think you know, some happy and fun would be a good one
14:25to put out first. I'm like, this is happy and fun. I mean, talking about it's called she hates me.
14:30I'm not serious. But so we'll see. That's always what's great about music. It's not math. It's not
14:35a formula. It's it's it's there's a trust between you and the audience and in the process and you
14:40get to find out whether it works or not. You're so right. We probably have a few years left before AI
14:44ruins this whole process. And it's like all algorithms while we can play the C chord here
14:49and say truck here and number one hit. Until then, we just have to trust the fans and our instincts.
14:56Dirk Spilling, thank you so much for coming to see us.
14:58Thank you. I appreciate it.