Budding star Dierks Bentley heading back to Phoenix on George Strait tour
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
Get Out

Country singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley may have left the Valley when he was 14, but his love of Mexican food survives to this day in his adopted home of Nashville. “The guys I made my record with and I always go to El Mariachi,” Bentley says of a Mexican joint in Music City. “In my liner notes of my record I mention the name of the restaurant because it was an important part of the record-making process. It's nothing like (the Valley's) Los Olivos or the Tee Pee Taproom but it's still pretty good.”

Bentley will be back in his home state Saturday when he opens for George Strait at America West Arena, where the young singer will have plenty of personal fans on hand.

“I gave out (all of the tickets) I got and I went ahead and bought a lot of tickets too just to get those out as well to try to take care of friends and family,” the singer says. “It's great — my mom is very excited about us coming to town.”

Bentley's self-titled debut CD has yielded a No. 1 single in the rollicking “What Was I Thinking,” featuring the seldom-heard Dobro guitar, and peaked in the Top 5 Billboard Country Album charts after its release in late 2003, making the singer the most successful native Arizonan to make waves in Music City since the late Marty Robbins and country chanteuse Jessi Colter lit up the airwaves in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

But it was another country superstar with ties to the Valley whose records instilled in Bentley a love of the music and encouraged him to pursue his own dreams in the business.

“I am a huge fan of Waylon Jennings,” Bentley says of the legend that got his start in Phoenix in the early ’60s before finding huge success in Nashville in the ’70s. “He's always been a big influence and is still a huge influence on me. I was a huge fan of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ and hearing that theme song. . . that was the first record I bought and I think actually my mom still has a 45 rpm of “The Good Ol’ Boys,” so that was probably some of the first music, and I remember my dad and I kind of bonding over George Strait.”

Did Bentley have any kind of psychic inkling back then that he would one day open a tour for the man considered one of country music's greatest artists?

“I didn't even imagine this tour four years ago!” Bentley laughs. “I set a lot of goals for myself as far as playing the Grand Ole Opry, which I've done many times, and having a platinum record, but opening for George, I didn't even consider, that — it was just out of reach — and then I got an offer to open up for George and it was just, ‘Wow!’

“He's invited us to his tent after shows for cigars and drinks and it's kind of hard to talk to George because I'm kind of in awe of him, but man, he's a great guy, and that's the reason he's been around so long. He's just a real classy dude.”

A constant companion on tours with Bentley has been his dog Jake, who graces the singer's album cover.

“He's here (in Austin for a tour stop) but I don't think he's going to make it to Phoenix,” Bentley says. “I'm in the middle of a five-week run here and that's just too long for Jake so I think he's going to head home. We're doing a video in Austin here in about four days and after that I think I'm going to have someone drive him back to Nashville because it's a little hard for him to be on the bus all the time.”

So while Jake heads home to Tennessee, Bentley will arrive in his former stomping grounds for a brief Phoenix stay that promises to be filled with friends and family and Mexican food.

Well, maybe not Mexican food. “We'll be pretty busy,” Bentley laughs. “I won't even have time to go to the Tee Pee Taproom.”

Dierks Bentley
With: George Strait, Amber Dotson
Where: America West Arena, 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Cost: $50-$60
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