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Dierks Bentley joins Katie Neal on this week's Katie & Company!
Transcript
00:00and how are you doing good how you doing katie i'm doing really good well listen congratulations
00:03on the release of the album i know you know i know that you have been working very hard on this
00:08for the last few years how does it feel to like have it out uh it's amazing it's kind of surreal
00:14to have it be done you know you spend yeah like you said so much time working on the album and
00:18all the you know it's different now than it was you first started putting up records out there's
00:22much like kind of preloading that happens now the little videos you make for each song and
00:26releasing tracks along the way before the album comes out uh then once it does come out it's kind
00:31of like it feels pretty final where it used to be you put the album out there's a lot of stuff behind
00:37it you know uh that happens but now with uh obviously streaming uh yeah once put the album
00:42out it's really out and everyone can access every song and um it feels pretty great i'm really happy
00:47to have it out there that's awesome there's several features on here the first one i want to talk about
00:51is the one with miranda i was watching a clip the other day of you talking about how you have known
00:55her for such a long time and i'm curious do you remember like the first time you met miranda or
00:59when you really started to become great friends i just um i was telling her and randy rogers i found
01:06a picture picture of miranda myself and randy rogers uh back like 2000 oh gosh maybe six we were on tour
01:13together and uh and we were just it's so much fun and it reminds me a lot of the tour i'm on now is
01:19like just what it's like to be that young and and just having that much fun and and you're kind of
01:26whole career ahead of you and so i've just known her for so long and uh and she's the same person
01:32she was back then i mean she's still so fun to be around and just says whatever's on her mind
01:37um and i've always wanted to have like a pure like kind of duet we never never had one before we had a
01:42about you know my bluegrass record a few years back i guess about 10 years ago we had a song with
01:47jamie johnson we had a kind of three-way song we've never had just the two of us so um this
01:52this track never you with her uh just so fun to have her on on that song and she's just one of the
01:59greatest singers and you know she'd hate for me to say this which is a you know future hall of fame
02:04member to make sure you sound old but she's going to be the country music hall of fame she's just all
02:08time she's so great and so so happy to have her on that track yeah and that's such a fun song too
02:13because when i first saw the title i was like oh this is going to be like a dirk's breakup song or
02:17something but i love that it's like got this like beautiful love song sentiment to it yeah it does
02:21feel like kind of never you feels kind of negative as a title that's a um good ross compliment song
02:27right there but yeah it turns out turns out it's a love song so she's uh she's she's perfect for it
02:34i'm so thankful she did it really of course and then the title track with uh john anderson and riley
02:40green on broken branches one of the things i noticed when i was watching that music video
02:43is that riley is clean shaven during it and i was like oh was this filmed like right after
02:48mustache gate where he shaved everything off i noticed he grew it right back out again too
02:53yeah he's gone for like a week and the week he is gone he's in my video so yeah it was very much
02:59mustache gate uh when riley shaved his stash off but um yeah riley i just i heard that song
03:04broken branches i immediately just kind of thought of him i thought he'd be great for it um
03:09he's he's a broken branch you know he's kind of a different um he's a little bit different he's
03:13been doing it his own way uh and i just thought he'd be perfect for that song so riley's in the
03:18studio singing that song and i and and also i was like oh my gosh you know who'd be great to have
03:22the song is john anderson because he's like the ultimate broken branch off the family tree
03:26which that song talks about so um i got john anderson i just i got his number through a friend
03:32uh actually the guy that owns bass pro shops gave me his number and so i called him up and uh
03:39yeah he just like he doesn't really detects much doesn't really use an iphone he kind of just is a
03:44flip phone kind of guy and he just um he came in the studio like a couple days later it could have
03:50been nicer about it and just uh just to be in the studio with john anderson and riley green it's so fun
03:55to be around those two guys and the three of us together on a track i mean it was what i love about
04:01it's just super organic it wasn't something that was planned out at all it's just kind of like
04:05oh great to have riley on the song and i mean now that riley's here kind of great at john anderson so
04:10really organic kind of um uh collaboration and and john anderson is everything you wish he could be
04:18he's like he is that guy he's just so down to earth and so funny and uh so cool that's awesome talk
04:25about why you wanted to name the album after that song because i feel like it's just a great
04:29representation of you like you always have these like really fun funny songs yeah uh i just felt
04:36like that song really kind of like represented the album i guess so i was writing a bunch of songs
04:41the usual kind of country songs about heartbreak and whiskey and jesus and small towns and love and
04:49it just kind of in that feeling like you know that that song broken branches uh it's the the hook is
04:54broken we're all broken branches off the family tree you know about a bunch of people that
04:59kind of left their hometowns and in my mind uh the song is about you know going to nashville and
05:04chasing this dream so just everything that goes along with that um all the all the heartache and
05:09the and the faith and and leaning on the whiskey a little bit and everything that goes into chasing
05:15that dream uh kind of like that song kind of like encompassed all that so i thought it'd be
05:19a great uh representation of the album uh that song would be yeah and then you went out on tour you're
05:25gonna be out through the end of august what have some of the the highlights from that been
05:29oh gosh uh i mean the crowd's been great for me it's always about the opening bands i had so many
05:35great people to tour with i mean when i look back on my life at some point it'll be it'll all be
05:39about just like who i got a chance to share the road with i mean jordan davis and
05:43john party and the brothers osborne and cole swindell i mean just had so many chase rise so many
05:49great openers uh this year the band lula is kicking things off and then just i had no idea
05:54who they were until early this year when my manager kind of turned my attention towards them and they're
06:00just so talented they're such great singers uh logan the girl and malachi uh the guy that make up band
06:06lula and then of course having zach top uh going on directly before zach is like once in a lifetime
06:13kind of generational talent honestly it's like uh he you know he's just gonna be the sky's the limit
06:21for this guy and he's everything i love about a country singer he's you know he's got to start
06:25bluegrass music like all the greats did like keith whitley ricky skaggs um dwight yokum you know he
06:32just he started off in bluegrass and great flat picker uh and then you know now he's uh
06:38in country music and he's just writing great songs and great singer fun to be around and just
06:44watch the crowds pour in uh early to be there for him as uh it's been fun and backstage him and his
06:50band they're just such such great people they're so fun to be around it's a lot of youthful energy
06:55that reminds me a lot of uh back in the day when ran and lambert and i were first starting off and
06:59just really fun to be around zach is so goofy too yeah very goofy super goofy yeah what have you
07:05thought about some of the um like highly inappropriate signs that women are holding
07:10up during his set have you seen these yeah i did see that yeah zach you can be on top i mean they're
07:17getting pretty creative the uh the top thing and the mustache uh he's he's got it man people are he's
07:23he's he's got that thing that is it's hard to describe i mean obviously there's the the singing and
07:28the musicianship uh but there's just some intangible thing too that's connected to all that as well
07:34that people are just going crazy for so it's fun for me i just had a front row seat every day to see
07:40this kind of thing happening is a is exciting and for me as a someone that loves country music and
07:46loves that kind of country music it's good to know it just feels like the future of country music's in
07:51a in great hands for sure i was laughing a few months ago because there was a story that started
07:55recirculating talking about how you before becoming a member of the grand old opry had actually been
08:01banned for life for a short period of time will you tell this story i someone just asked me about
08:07that the other day as well yeah so i used to work at tnn the national network which is a building
08:11directly across the driveway from where the grand old opry is and uh on fridays you could just sign
08:17this piece of paper and let them know you're going to come over so i'd sign this piece of paper say
08:22hey i'm gonna be at the opry tonight and you could get a pass to come in backstage and watch the
08:26watch the the show it was great i do it every friday and saturday uh and then i'd go down to
08:33lower broadway afterwards so it's like the perfect mix of like kind of old school country the opry
08:38stuff you know with like mini pearl and porter wagner and uh the osmond brothers and um mike snyder just
08:47these kind of watching the greats do their thing and then go to lower broadway and see what the kids
08:51are doing and really just good education is and i did it every weekend and uh i guess you know
08:58finally they send an email out to uh my employer saying hey dirk's a nice guy but he's he can't come
09:04to the opry like every single night he has to be sorry we just can't have him back there every night
09:09so they kind of kicked me out from uh backstage from from doing that uh uh back then so luckily a few
09:16years later i got the uh the ultimate backstage pass with the my membership to the grand old opry
09:21in 2005 but yeah um so this wasn't like a this wasn't a lifetime ban the way that this like the
09:28way that this story made it sound like you know it makes us like makes it sound like i was out there
09:31kicking out the footlights and causing problems i was just too big of a fan going too often
09:37that's so funny well we're over halfway through 2025 got the album out tour's gonna wrap up in august
09:43what else are you excited about for the rest of the year well yeah the album is you know the beginning
09:48year is pretty busy trying to put out an album and launch a tour it's uh that's a lot and um so
09:53just to have the album out to have the album be out there and now just be able to focus strictly a few
09:58months where i can just really focus on the tour and just the show but even more so just like the
10:03fun of being on the road with my band and crew and zach's people and uh you know just the day daily
10:09life out on the road you know there's some pickleball there's some cold plunging there's some
10:12there's some beer drinking there's it's just a little bit of everything it's just kind of like
10:16um a little bit of like a summer camp in some way and so it doesn't last very long there's like a
10:22couple weeks where i just don't have to work on it anything really besides that my kids are all
10:26their own camp so um i'm just really excited about the rest of the summer just having fun
10:31doing the tour that's great and then i'm sure that like your wife appreciates like tour wraps by the
10:36time that kids are going back to school so you can be in like i'm sure the kids are happy to to have
10:40you home to be like in full dad mode going into the fall wrap it up yeah we try to wrap it up by
10:44september because it's just a lot there's a lot of travel hockey uh there's just a lot of like
10:49i always say when this tour ends my my hockey tour begins because my son plays hockey all over the
10:54country so i gotta be home to start a different tour right i think it was the last time we were
10:59talking you were saying that jordan was trying to inquire about getting like a child acting agent
11:03has she made any progress with this uh she's in oklahoma city right now doing a
11:07a theater uh program she's working on the the a play out there and so when she's back too she's a
11:13lot of she's involved in a high school musical thing and um there's just yeah it's a lot you
11:19know there's they all have their little hopes and dreams and um i feel like i've had a chance to
11:23chase mine so anything i can do to help them with theirs which is mostly just driving them places that's
11:27the biggest role i guess i have and they all they all picked careers that i i have no i can't help out
11:34much and like i don't know much about musical theater i mean i've learned a lot and hockey and
11:38i love hockey love i mean it's my favorite sport but i you know i don't know anybody in the hockey
11:42business so my job basically is just to like kind of drive them to and from is everyone into her
11:48sophomore junior senior year what does she my oldest daughter's gonna be a junior yeah and she's
11:52oh my god that's crazy she's been seeing the national anthem for a bunch of different things which is
11:56totally you know a bizarre kind of thing that she got into you could ask one time and you do a good job
12:02the next thing you know you're you're doing it for all sorts of things so for baseball games and
12:07basketball games and local like high school track meets and stuff she's singing the anthem everywhere
12:12where which is very nerve-wracking as a parent to uh to watch that i was gonna say because i feel
12:17like i've talked to you know carrie underwood's like if i can like go the rest of my life without
12:21having to sing the national anthem it's something because it's just so intense like a perfect singer for
12:24it no i know but like and even chris stapleton says that now he's like i've done it at the super
12:28bowl i'm not doing it anymore but honestly yeah it's chris stapleton there's whitney houston and
12:32then there's like no one else i mean those i used to do all the time and looking back at i'm like
12:36i can't believe i sang that song because it's there it's just such a hard song to sing there's
12:42somebody it's just yeah well there's so much pressure because if you mess it up you'd never
12:47live it down carrie underwood could sing it you know she could wake up and just sing it she's so good
12:53i don't not not not me i'm done i'm gonna anybody asked me i'm gonna pass them on to my daughter
12:57we're leaving that up to evie dirks thank you so much for the time today it was great to see you
13:01congratulations on the album and uh enjoy the rest of tour and we'll see you back in town this fall
13:05okay thank you so much the time i really appreciate it of course always take care dirks all right bye
13:10bye