Dierks Bentley stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about his Tom Petty cover of “American Girl,” reveal an embarrassing incident he had with his daughters coach and more.
In Bentley’s current state of life, he’s all about wellness. His favorite thing is to find out what people are doing to stay fit and feel good. He’s been playing hockey this year with his son to bond. He’s also started Pilates and mixes it in with weightlifting.
Bentley shared that he does not mind when fans ask for pictures, but also thinks it’s cool when they just let him be. He recalled when he saw Bruce Springsteen when he did his Broadway shows in New York City and got the chance to meet him. He wanted to be the cool guy and not ask for a picture with him and now he looks back and regrets not getting one with him. Once someone asks for a picture with them, his relationship with that person will never go back to a casual point. Especially when they tell him they want a picture because their mom is a big fan.
Bentley shared how some guy came up to him and asked for a picture and thought he was Chase Rice. Rice always gets mistaken for Bentley, but this was the first time it was reversed. Bentley loved it because Rice is 10 years younger than him, so he played along with it and sent Rice a picture explaining what happened. Rice is opening for Bentley on his Gravel and Gold Tour this summer, so he thinks it’d be the perfect time for them to swap time slots since so many people confuse them.
Bentley is a massive Tom Petty fan and part of the new project, Petty Country. It’s hard for him to pick just one song that he loves by him but when asked to sing for this project, he chose “American Girl.” He became a big fan of his music through bluegrass and found there is a real connection with country music and Petty, so he jumped at the opportunity to be on Petty Country. He wanted to make the track have a bluegrass sound to it to touch on the way he discovered Petty. He recorded it then forgot about it until Big Machine came back and said they wanted to make it a single, which he thought was cool because other artists on the project are Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton but they chose to go with him.
He went back to re-record it because he really studied the vocal delivery on the song. He thinks Petty’s voice on the second verse of “American Girl” may be the best vocal delivery ever because there’s so much heartbreak and sorrow in his voice. Bentley felt like he had to go back in and try and match it and thinks the final recording really captured it. Plus, he’s getting ready to go back on tour so now he has another song to add to the set list. Bentley has 22 No.1’s but knows that some number one songs don’t move the needle like others. So, he called adding “American Girl” into the setlist a gift because it’s already getting great reactions when they perform it live. Bentley has been touring on the same bus for 20 years with the same band and still has fun on stage. No matter how tired he is, when he walks on stage there is electricity that comes to him, and he’s still having fun and will continue to do it for as long as it keeps feeling like that.
Bentley admitted he’s a bad parent when it comes to his kids' sports games. He recalled when he went to his daughter's volleyball game and halfway through the game, she still hadn’t been put in. He had just gotten home from being on the road and had a trucker hat, board shorts and flip-flops on said he wasn’t ready to be “released back into the wild yet.” He was angry his daughter hadn’t gotten into the game yet so he walked over to the bench, confronted the coach and asked if she would get in. The coach told him since she was late for warmups, she wouldn’t, and that’s when he grabbed his daughter to leave. Bentley and the coach started bickering with each other and then his daughter was crying and screaming the whole way home. Bentley then sent a bunch of emails to the school apologizing for his behavior and trying to make the situation better. His other daughter had a lacrosse game and with 34 seconds left, heard the coach say they needed to get the four girls in who hadn’t played yet. She told Bentley that and he thought the goal was to build the players up and not make it feel like they suck, so he sent a long email about that to the coach, which he also wishes he hadn’t done. He is super protective of his kids and their sports and said parenting is tough because it’s always a moving target.
Bentley’s Gravel and Gold Tour kicks off June 7th and Petty Country will be out May 31st.