NASHVILLE — Rolling up the highway toward home, Dierks Bentley sounds at peace with himself. He's returning from a few days at Luke Bryan’s place, where they kicked back, fished and probably talked about their upcoming gig as co-hosts of the Academy of Country Music Awards (CBS, Sunday, 8 p.m. ET/PT).
He has also just wrapped up his eighth album, Black, out May 27. The final song sequence: Black, Pick Up, I'll Be the Moon (with Maren Morris), What the Hell Did I Say, Somewhere on A Beach, Freedom, Why Do I Feel, Roses and A Time Machine, All the Way to Me, Different for Girls (with Elle King), Mardi Gras, Light It Up and Can’t Be Replaced.
Despite his 13 No. 1 country singles, five No. 1 country albums, 13 Grammy nominations and two CMA Awards, Bentley has never quite fit the trend of the moment. He has done his share of party songs, but much of his catalog also includes more ambitious material. Unlike peers who fixate on driving trucks with a fetching female at their side, Bentley has reflected on growing past that wild phase into adulthood (Am I the Only One) and the inevitable loss of loved ones (I Hold On).
A similar thoughtfulness permeates Black. “I go into each album as a blank slate, looking for inspiration,” he says. “My wife (Cassidy's) maiden name is Black. We’ve been married for 10 years, so this record became less about ‘I’ and ‘me’ and more about relationships and what a crazy journey they are. ... As I got into it, I started getting in touch with the mystery, the darker edges of the heart.”
The word “black” was his springboard. “I think of night,” he says. “I think of love that happens at night. ... Black is the sexiest color. True love in all its messiness is black.”
As he wrote and gathered material from other writers, the songs began to fit together as a narrative, an abstract meditation on loneliness that leads to self-awareness and redemption.
"My wife asked me, ‘Where’s the love song for me?’ I tell her Black is the love song," he says. "She goes, ‘That’s not a love song — that’s a sex song!’ ”
Bentley laughs. “But that’s the kind of record this is. It goes from there into Pick Up, which is about jealousy. Then with I’ll Be the Moon there’s some cheating. The guy has a new girl, which leads to What the Hell Did I Say. ... Those songs take you on this journey of leaving one thing behind for something else.”
The fit of first single Somewhere on A Beach (written by Michael Tyler, Jaron Boyer, Alexander Palmer, Dave Kuncio and Josh Mirenda) in the story arc feels a little forced to Bentley. “But when I couldn’t get it out of my head, I knew I had to record it.”
Even then, Bentley wasn’t sure it was the best introductory single. “People want certain types of song for the summer tour, for the radio. They want songs for eye candy. This one song had all of these functions."
Now, he's thankful that he listens to the people around him, "because I love Somewhere on A Beach.”
