Inside the Mind of a Hitmaker: Dierks Bentley Talks Songwriting

This week on Backstage Country, we’re cracking open the notebook of one of country music’s most consistent hitmakers, Dierks Bentley. Bentley is co-hosting the show with Elaina Smith from June 9 through 13, and he’s taking fans deep into his songwriting process: where the ideas come from, how he turns real life into lyrics, and why sometimes the best lines come when you’re not even trying. 

Smith asked Bentley what it’s like for him when he’s writing songs, or what it is he’s looking for when he listens to a song. The Arizona native admits there’s “more pressure cutting somebody else’s song.” He chuckled, “It's one thing you write the song; you mess it up in the studio. ‘All right, it's on me.’ But if someone else, I tell this to everybody, these songwriters in town, even the best songwriters in town. They might get two or three, maybe two really great songs. They write a bunch of A's, but like an A plus song, they might get to. And if you get your hands on one of those songs, man, the pressure to not mess that up in a studio or not mess up the video that goes along with it. And then to put it on your album, maybe it's not a single, it doesn't go to the radio. I just feel tremendous pressure recording outside songs.” 

He admitted that once he finds a great song, he puts all his heart and effort into making sure the song is recorded the right way: “I always try to give it a chance to see more life than just being somewhere on the back of my record. So yeah, finding great songs is like fishing.” He laughed, “It really is. It's like you have no idea it's out there. We just have to go out there and throw a line in and see what you get.” 

Smith said she always noticed his music videos always tell a story, like “Drunk on a Plane,” which she considers a classic. Bentley shared that the music video for “She Hates Me” is already out, and it’s already a classic video. “We put out ‘Well Well Whiskey,’ we shot a little video for that, nothing crazy,” he said. “I just shot a video for ‘Standing in the Sun,’ a new song that's going to come out pretty soon. That was a one take shot through a field at sunrise. We started at 4 a.m. Getting all set up and as soon as we felt like the sun was getting ready to come up, I started walking and singing the song, and by the time I got done with the song, I looked back and the sun was fully orange and up.” 

He chuckled, “It was really a cool take on that one. So yeah, just finding a little bit of ‘Broken Branches,’ I'll probably shoot a video for that with John Anderson and Riley Green who are my co-collaborators on that song. I've always said you might find a great song, write a great song, and record a good song, but you can't slack off on [the video] because it can either detract or add to the song. So, you really got to find great people to work with. just surrounding yourself with people [who are] better than you is the key to everything.” 

Watch Bentley’s music videos here.