On the Perfect Road Trip -"You have to have a great CD selection right next to you—those black folders. I haven't been able to get away like that lately, but on my last trip I drove to Memphis and listened to the entire Hank Williams box set. It set a great tone for the whole trip."
"What do you need? Music and gas."
On visiting Nashville -"Well, you have to do the Opry. It represents Nashville better than anything else. The Station Inn has great bluegrass, and acoustic music, and Nashville has a lot of good restaurants—lots of ‘em in Hillsboro Village. And find a friend with a boat and go out on Percy Priest Lake."
COVER STORY
Road Warrior Dierks Bentley Loves Being "Everywhere"
When opry.com decided to celebrate the road to Nashville and great summer road trips, it was immediately clear which country chart-topper could speak well to the joy of hitting the highway. Roger Miller crowned himself King of the Road in 1965, and some 41 years later Dierks Bentley is well on his way to becoming the highway's Crown Prince.
In the three years since the Opry's newest member first hit country radio, he's logged more than 1,000 days on the road, played everywhere from Cedar Falls to Great Falls and Kansas City to New York City, and has even proclaimed that he's just getting started in "A Lot Of Leaving Left To Do," the first single from his sophomore album, Modern Day Drifter.
There's a reason that Bentley is on his bus more than 300 days a year: he loves it. "When I was in Nashville without a (record) deal, I just wanted to get out and play music," he says following an afternoon sound check in Salisbury, Maryland. "To me, there's a romance I still haven't fully realized out here. I love the bus. I love the guys in the band. It's great to on a day like today get a sound check in, then just sit out in the sun a little bit."
Ask the troubadour if there's a place he most enjoys traveling or a part of the American landscape he looks particularly forward to seeing, and buckle up for a fast-paced, whirlwind cross-country adventure. "It's great to be in Florida," he says. "Great to hit the beach. It's always good to be in California. We have good friends in Texas—good to be in Texas. And the Midwest has the loudest fans. They're so glad you're there. The Quad Cities. We were in Cedar Falls, Iowa the other night, and the fans were so loud. Man, I love being everywhere."
Summer '06 has the Opry star cruising down the interstates as part of the Kenny Chesney The Road & The Radio Tour. "It's kind of like being in high school," Bentley says. "We get to hang out with his guys and have a lot of fun. Kenny draws great country fans that are there to have a great time. Kenny takes you to the islands no matter where you are—even if it's in the middle of America."
Twelve years after Bentley first answered Music City's call by moving from his native Arizona, he's still tempted by Nashville's siren song. "I came to Nashville for the first time in 1994," he says. "I knew it's what I wanted to do. I'd just sit and say, ‘I've got to get to Nashville. I've got to get to Nashville.' It was a passion-slash-disease."
These days, his mantra is more like "I've got to get back to Nashville." "There's nothing like coming home to Nashville," he says, "playing the Opry, then going to your own bed and your own pillow."
by Dan Rogers
-- See Dierks Bentley's tour schedule.