Dierks Bentley talks music, planes and more with Steve & Gina

One day prior to his Omaha concert Dierks Bentley chats with 'Steve & Gina in the Morning' about his music, his plans, his busy daddy schedule, flying jets and more! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kat one O three point seven your number one for
New Country. It is Steve and Gina in the morning.
You're on the Friday celebration and we're pleased to welcome
Capitol Records recording artist Derek Spentley. Hey, Derek's good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey guys, good morning. Thanks so much for their time.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Oh well, Soda Weed, it's been way too long. We're
so excited to have you tomorrow night at Cchi House Center. Omaha,
we are pumped about this.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh yeah, it's gonna be great to be back. I
think the last time is there might have been pre COVID,
so leave you right, Yeah, I think it was there
as Hardy and okay Eric, but yeah, so excited to
beat you guys, and yeah, it's gonna be great. Now.
It's a really fun tour and we're really excited to
bring it to you guys.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, before we get to the business end of things,
let's chat a little bit about what's been going on.
Have you had a chance to be in the mountains
yet this year?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh man, I'm back in full full school mode. Back here.
Three drop offs in the morning, take up Hofy after school,
tennis after school, theater after school. My daughter does rowing.
There's a lot going on, So I'm in that mode
right now when I'm not on the road. But yeah,
this summer I was able to get out to Colorado
quite a bit and uh and get some a lot
of mountain time in. But yeah, I'm just back and

(01:05):
it's like, you know, when I'm on when I'm when
I'm on the road, I'm on the road. And when
i'm home, I'm I'm home a full daddy. Yeah, a
lot of daddy. I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So does that mean there's not much time to get
in and fly do some flying?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, I fly to the show, so I kind of
multitask that one probably flying in Omaha, so I get
a chance to fly. I have a I think we've
talked about this, have a sponsorship with Cessna, so I've
been flying their jets. So I get to fly the
whole band and an awesome plane that goes up to
forty five thousand feet and I get a you know,
we have a great time doing that, and I have
a great band, and they certainly appreciate a little more

(01:38):
time at home too. But the plane that I own
is a caravan. It's a single engine turbot prop, and
I had not been flying that much just because I've
been working a lot, and well, I wouldn't call it work.
I've been having too much fun on the road. So
but that I'll come up later this year when we
slow down a little bit, I'll definitely do some fall
flying and up in that plane.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Man, do you ever pinch yourself and think, Man, I
got a pretty good life. I mean, this is I
know you've worked very hard, but oh how many.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
People get to gratitude. It's just like you know, as
a musician, we're born to complain. That's what we do
really well, So even when things are going great, we
find something that's a point about. But I really every
morning I wake up and I just, you know, I
think because it's such a back and forth this time
of year when I'm with the days that I am
home and I actually slept my own bed and actually slept,

(02:25):
I mean, when I'm on the road, I sleep very little.
I mean a couple hours a night, just because I'm
not very good at sleeping on a moving vehicle. Uh.
Some people sleep great on the bus. I never have
been able to. I don't. I don't sleep until it
stops moving like five or six in the morning.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
But so I'm home, I wake up, I feel good.
I get to be as a fam I'm so grateful.
I really really think it does every now on stage two,
I look out the crowd or I turn around with
back at my band and our our production, and you
know that, I know our crew. I watched our crew
assemble this stuff every morning with the help of sixty
local sixty to eighty local crew. It's amazing these guys do.

(03:00):
They put this thing up, we get a chance to
play under it, and they pull back down and put
it back in the semi trucks and we get to
go to another town. It's still, Yeah, it's still when
I walk on stage, there's still a sense of like
maybe more than ever, of just like joy and wonder
and excitement and gratitude for what we get to do.
It's it's really fun.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Oh, that is so cool. We're talking with Derek S.
Bentley here with Steve and Gina in the morning.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, speaking of joy and excitement, what was it like
to be asked to do the Tom Petty project called
Yeah and American Girl specifically, which is literally one of
my favorite songs. You really did it justice nailed it?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Huh Yeah, thanks guys, I mean yeah, talk about pinching yourself.
When that project presented itself to me and then that
song was available, I was like, this is crazy because
we've already been doing the song. I've done the song
before my show. It's probably somebody spy singing in a
lower Broadway in Nashville right now. I mean, it's a
very popular cover song. And so to get to do
our version of it, nat some banjo and fiddle and

(03:55):
man Lynn and then have that song on the on
the radio and we get to play it now in
our life show, it's like adding an instant, huge hit
to your show. And really the way we recorded it
really features the guys in my band. So there's a
great jam at the end. And it's been such a
blessing to haven't one just to pop it into the
pop it into the setlist every night. So yeah, I
love the song, love the way it turned out, and

(04:16):
of course honored to be on a project that has
Dolly Parton and George Straight and Lanny Wilson. I mean,
it's an amazing project. So there's some incredible Tom Petty,
you know what these guys did with Tom songs on there.
You know, of course Stapleton is his version of a
Tom Petty song is amazing and they got George Straight
doing doing one live live performance. So yeah, it's called

(04:39):
Petty Country. It's a cool project.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah I haven't seen it. Yeah, Petty Country a country
music collection of Tom Petty songs. And what I love
the fact is he stayed true to the song, but
it had your flavor of bluegrass in it too.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah. Yeah, we wanted to keep that Tom Petty, you know,
the roots of the song, which is that Rickenbacker guitar
and bass. But we had to add a little of
my version in Nashville to it. You know, my my
Nashville is more the banjo, fiddle, mando, you know, the
acoustic instruments. So that to me, those instruments can really
uh you know, rip when you when you feature him
the right way. So I think it's I think Tom

(05:12):
would have loved it. I know he loved bluegrass music.
I know he loved acoustic music and the country or stuff,
so I think he would have loved this version of
this song.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
I have to tell you, I got to circle back
to something because I didn't get a chance to do this.
But when you're in your airplane and you're flying your
airplaning and you're flying flying your band, do you get
on the thing and go hello, this is Bentley and flying.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Oh I use my alter ego, Captain Holding Johnson. That's
Holding Johnson, Holding Johnson. He comes out of every night on
stages at the junk on a plane pilot of Squeldron.
Oh yeah we have. We did the whole intercom stuff
and his course is completely r rated and I could
never repeat things get said on there. But basically Captain
Holding Johnson doesn't like his passengers, and he doesn't. He

(05:53):
just yells at him and screams out and brates them,
and there's no nice welcome aboard. Uh on dude air
as to call my plane. But then the other last
they're back. They're playing cards and uh, it's it's a
really we've been doing it for a long time. It's
just it's it's I'm so appreciative of it because you know,
three kids and uh, you know, trying to trying to

(06:15):
you know, really be there, and these remaining years I
go with them. Without aviation, it wouldn't even be possible.
So that's why the wholeson I started flying, was was
because my family and I used to find a tiny
little four seater plane. There's a Tiston engine and and
even then, the guys would come with me and we
had to put oxygen masks on when their clouds are

(06:35):
building up. We needed to climb to get over the clouds.
We'd be breathing oxygen off a tank. And but everyone
in my band is very family oriented and uh, the
guys would do have families and uh we uh will
we can get a couple extra hours at home, We'll
do We'll do anything to get it so so cool. Yeah,
so we we We love aviation.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Talking with Dirk Spentley on Cat one on three point seven,
you were talking about pinching yourself moments. Can you believe
your ten studio albums in with Gravel and Gold, Well,
I'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I mean every album I make. I always say if
someone just had to pick up one album, and I
always gets guessing my most reached album because I love
the albums I make, and I feel like each one
is a step more towards you know who I'm trying
to be as an artist. But yeah, the tenth album
was really special. I feel like it took me three
times in the studio to finally figure out what I
was trying to do thematically, and that was ended up

(07:28):
being kind of like the Greatest Sounds album. It's a
collection of like all different sounds I feel like I've
gone for over my career. So there's obviously the stuff
that gets you know, mainstream country, and then there's some
more traditional stuff. There's some bluegrass stuff, there's some nineties
country on this collection, this album, So this one's definitely
a fave, but my first one, I mean, there's nothing
like big in that first one. It's you know, it's

(07:51):
you know, I remember back in those days, and for
many albums leading up to this last one, I would
be in a studio for everything. I mean I'm talking
about when like the engineer is like lining up the
audio waves of the two different microphones that are on
the kick drum, you know, and he's in the computer
like lining up those frequencies just right because they're off
by a little bit, and not being there watching what

(08:11):
he's doing, And I mean, I was involved in every
minute detail of it. And now I have a great
team I get to work with, and I'm still heavily involved,
but not quite as involved they used to be. As
far as time goes, I'm a little busier these days.
But but yeah, I just love making the records. And
to me, you know, every album I make, you never
know it can be the last one. It's all moved

(08:31):
towards streaming and nobody's really buying albums, but they're important
to me. I like to have that finished work, you know,
to look back on. So yeah, this last one, I
really love the way it turned out.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well well at We can't wait to see you tomorrow night,
CCHI Health Center, Omaha. Thank you, Derek Spentley in concert.
Still a few tickets available, so get them and we're
going to party tomorrow night. Thank you so much for
joining us here in Cat Country.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
It's a really fun show, I mean, and I hope
people pick up on that when they watch his play.
We're not out there just putting on some sort of
like show, going to the motions. The band and I
have so much fun, uh just we just they're my
best friends and we just have so much fun on stage.
And of course we've got Chase Rice Is on this
tour and in the Hot Country nights will be there
closing it. Out, so wondering about that.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Doug Douglson.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, if you know me and my band, we love hits,
but we're bigger on bits and the night is just
one long bit, so it's it's fun.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Does Doug Douglason get to travel on the on the jet.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
To No, Doug, we put him back in cargo. He
rides back in there. He does. He does smell. He
smells so bad. He had him up in front. We
can never get the smell out cigarettes and alcoholics. That's hilarious,
dowing tobacco. So no, he's back there, but he gets
to come along. He's fine, he's fine.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Hey man, we appreciate you joining us this morning. Look
forward to seeing you at h item Mar. Now you
have safe travels. We'll see you there.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Thank you, guys. I so appreciate it, Thank you, Thanks
to bye bye