Dierks Bentley

Dierks Bentley was born on November 20, 1975, in Phoenix, Arizona. He grew up listening to George Strait and Hank Williams with his father. By the age of 13 he started playing the electric guitar. Listening mostly to rock, he started playing music with his classmates; he was then introduced to Hank Williams Jr’s song “Man to Man”. In 1993, he graduated from the prestigious New Jersey prep school Lawrence School. When he was 19 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and involved himself with the local music scene. At first Dierks was discouraged with the music business but he started to discover another side of the music scene he hadn’t considered before. He eventually started playing in a bar called Springwater. Then, he was able to play in a bar/restaurant called Market Street Brewery where he did his first paid performances.

One night, while Dierks was on stage at the Market Street, Vince Gill and Amy Grant walked through the door. Dierks asked Gill to join for a couple of songs; they performed together for more than an hour. During the day, he worked at The Nashville Network (TNN) in the tape library researching old music footage for a country music documentary. Taking what he learned he recorded a demo that got him a publishing deal. With Sony/Tree Publishing he got a chance to work with Arthur Buenahora and Brett Beavers. Before long, a few of the demos awakened the interest of a couple of record labels.

Bentley signed with Capitol Records. Bentley worked with Brett as his producer; they were entitled with enough freedom to make the record the way they wanted. Capitol Nashville released Bentley’s self-titled debut album in 2003. The record featured Dierk’s successful first single, “What Was I Thinkin’?” which reached number one on the country charts (and number 22 in the US Hot 100). In 2005 Dierks released his sophomore effort, Modern Day Drifter, that featured singles like “Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do”, “Settle For A Slowdown” and “Come a Little Closer” (the latter reached number one on the country charts too).