{"id":5292,"date":"2012-03-11T23:13:47","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T06:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5292"},"modified":"2012-03-12T16:49:47","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T23:49:47","slug":"dierks-bentley-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/03\/dierks-bentley-3\/","title":{"rendered":"DIERKS BENTLEY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"DIERKS BENTLEY<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A country superstar crisscrosses America to find home \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe last year\u2019s been a blur of\u00a0 asphalt, recording studios and songwriting,\u201d says Arizona native Dierks Bentley, 36. \u201cIt\u2019s hard work, but I love what I do. Every record you make, you have to pour more of yourself into it.\u201d His previous effort, 2009\u2019s Up on the Ridge<\/em>, found him exploring bluegrass and roots music\u2014but the new Home<\/em> is a return to the muscular contemporary country that has brought him 15 Top 10 singles over the last nine years. We spoke with Bentley, who lives in Nashville with his wife and two young daughters, during a tour\u00a0stop in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

What was your concept for Home<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title reflects coming back to country music after making a bluegrass record. The album is a reflection of who I am as a country artist. We tried to still use the bluegrass instruments that I love\u2014banjo, mandolin, Dobro\u2014while keeping the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll energy of the live show. And for me, this whole country feels like home. I\u2019ve been blessed to travel throughout my career.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It depends. Sometimes someone will come into the room with an idea. With \u201cHome,\u201d none of us had anything that first day. My wife\u2019s car battery had died, so I was gone for 45 minutes. When I came back, [co-writers] Dan Wilson and Brett Beavers were working on this melody. We were talking about America and about home, and how there\u2019s just so much negative stuff on TV. Things have gotten so nasty and divisive. We drive all across the country and that\u2019s not the America I see.<\/p>\n

How did you choose songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a year and a half I wrote with everybody from brand-new guys who\u2019ve never had a cut to some of the greats in Nashville. But I also listened to thousands of demos, more than I ever had. It\u2019s fun discovering songs that hardly anyone\u2019s heard before. A lot of great songwriting has turned my ear. I kept listening to demos for different\u00a0sounds and themes.<\/p>\n

Why is songwriting vital to you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have so much respect for the song as an entity\u2014and how songs are just created out of thin air. I love finding and uncovering them and giving them life. Songs are woven into the fabric of our lives. I\u2019ve been working on songwriting since I moved to Nashville almost 20 years ago. To be part of that community is such an honor.<\/p>\n

How was making Up on the Ridge<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was an incredible opportunity, and it\u2019s great that the label allowed me to make a bluegrass record. It was really a passion project. It was based on my own heart. I was out touring in 2009, and I couldn\u2019t take it anymore. I had to do a straight-up roots, \u2019grassy record. It\u2019s the type of music that my friends and people I respect\u00a0most in this town play.<\/p>\n

How have you grown?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I put heavy emphasis on the live show, and I\u2019m always trying to make it better. Today I\u2019m on the road on a Sunday morning, and I\u2019ve got two little girls at home who I miss dearly. I love playing music, though. I tell the guys in the band every night, when we take a shot and say a prayer, that this show is for our fans waiting in line and it\u2019s for us, too. All of us are away from our families and making sacrifices, so it has to be worthwhile. We focus on getting that connection with the fans while we\u2019re out there. It\u2019s why\u00a0we do what we do.<\/p>\n

\u2013Blake Boldt<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DIERKS BENTLEY A country superstar crisscrosses America to find home \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cThe last year\u2019s been a blur of\u00a0 asphalt, recording studios and songwriting,\u201d says Arizona native Dierks Bentley, 36. \u201cIt\u2019s hard work, but I love what I do. Every record you make, you have to pour more of yourself into it.\u201d His previous effort, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2273,3185,970,3223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5292"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5355,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions\/5355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}