Dierks Bentley’s Reality As A Dad Of Three

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

May 31st 2:14 PM

Dierks Bentley is a father to two teenage girls and a son. With Father’s Day just a few weeks away (6/16), the country star talked about the joy of his role as a dad.

He told us, “When I get home, it’s a totally different reality that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Just hanging with my girls and doing the things we do and seeing life through their eyes, it’s incredible. It takes a man to do it. It’s not a boys’ game. It takes a man to do it.”

He added, “I love the juxtaposition to be able to be that man and to also go on the road and act like I’m 13 years old and play video games all afternoon waiting for the fans to show up. So, it’s really a blessing to be able to do both.”

Dierks Own Dad

Dierks said his own father was a big reason he loves country music, “My dad was my biggest influence in country music because my dad loved country radio. So, we always drove around listening to country radio and George Strait, Hank Williams and Randy Travis and all these guys, so. Without him, I wouldn’t be doing this, that’s for sure.”

Bentley is one of many country stars who are part of a Tom Petty tribute album called Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.

Dierks just released the music video for his cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl.” In the new video, the country star straps on and plays Petty’s signature Rickenbacker guitar that was flown in from the late rock star’s archives in California for the shoot.

Tom Petty Cover Music Video

Bentley said of the music video, “Holding an instrument that carries so much musical history and significance was surreal; you could almost feel the stories resonate from it as I played it. Tom Petty’s lyrics and delivery were a huge part of what made his music so impactful.”

The album will also feature covers of Petty songs by George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Lainey Wilson. It is due out on June 21.

“American Girl” was the last song performed in concert by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They played it to close out the encore of their performance on September 25, 2017, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, the final concert of their 40th Anniversary Tour.

The rock star died of complications from cardiac arrest after an accidental prescription medication overdose on October 2, 2017.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.

Five Country Stars That Are Licensed Pilots

Alan Jackson
Country Music Hall of Fame member Jackson was flying to and from gigs early in his career and learned how to fly by watching and learning from the pilot. He told us, “When I started flying to work, I got interested in watching the pilot who flew me, and he taught me. At that time, we had a farm with a pretty big grass strip, and I had a plane with amphibious gear so I could land on water, the lake. I just kind of flew around Nashville. I still have my license; I just don’t fly. Denise (his wife) got tired of my flying and worrying about me.”

Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Dustin Lynch
In August of 2022, Dustin revealed on Twitter that he got his pilot’s license. He wrote in a post, “Set a goal, and when you get there…man, it always feels good! First solo flight today.”

Dustin Lynch on X (formerly Twitter): "Set a goal, and when you get there...man it always feels good! First solo flight today 👨🏽‍✈️🛫 / X"
Set a goal, and when you get there...man it always feels good! First solo flight today 👨🏽‍✈️🛫

Lynch told us it was a new hobby. He said, “What really pushed me was we weren’t touring. So, it was like, ‘Let’s pick up a new hobby.’ I have some farms that are hard to get to – driving or flying commercially.”

He posted a video of attending an air show with his friend Swiss to Instagram at the time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Blo0C6nHsAa/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=040ce9c8-5b73-4517-94b1-6409337f56ba
Luke Bryan
Luke told us in 2021 that his new passion is something he started to learn during the pandemic when he purchased a helicopter. And he is a licensed helicopter pilot. He said, “I think that was a big reason why I wanted to learn, and if I’m looking at all these gauges and I know everything is going smoothly, you know it’s just something fun.” Luke also can now compare flight logs with his buddy Dierks Bentley. He offered, “I’ve always had a little envy of Dierks Bentley. Dierks and I have this intellectual competition going on where he can’t out-intellect me. Dierks is like savant smart, so I like to try and challenge my goofy savant smartness against his. So we’re both aviators now, and he can’t one-up me in the aviator game.”
Tim McGraw
Tim is a trained pilot and flies to and from concert dates. His wife Faith Hill and he have a deal never to fly together privately in case something happens so their girls will not lose both parents. He’s been flying for years. In a recent promo for Cirrus airplanes, McGraw says the thing he loves most about flying his own plane is the “relaxation of it.” He added that he loves being up in the air, not having to think about work or “any of that stuff.”
Dierks Bentley
Dierks is one of country music’s most well-known pilots. He flies his own Cessna plane to shows nationwide. His tourmate Jordan Davis recently told us that Dierks saved him recently and helped him make a show.

Davis told us, “First show of the tour, I’m sitting on an Air Canada flight plane in Toronto. It’s an hour delayed. So I was like, ‘This flight is gonna get canceled; I’m gonna miss the first day of the Dierks tour.’ Then I get a message from my manager that says, ‘Hey, get off the plane; Dierks is gonna re-route and pick us up.” Jordan continues, “True story. He swoops in and picks us up with caked-on sunscreen in his Dierks gear: flip-flops and shorts. I was like, ‘Thanks, dude, for picking me up,’ he says, ‘Yeah man, hop in, we’ll take off.’ We fly to Canada going down to land; something’s on the runway, and we have to pull back up. Dierks is flying the airplane, not like co-piloting; he’s flying the airplane, goes down, pulls back up, circles back around, comes in, and in one of the smoothest landings I’ve ever had in a PJ (personal jet).”

A couple of years ago, Bentley did a flight safety video.