Bentley talks beer and Bonnaroo

Dierks Bentley likes to party, and he hopes all his concerts are just that -- parties.

In the past few years Bentley has rocketed to the top of country music stardom with a freewheeling, party-boy image, songs that blend traditional country with contemporary mainstream appeal and a nearly nonstop touring schedule. In just a few years Bentley has garnered two platinum albums, while his latest effort -- "Long Trip Alone" -- debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard country album charts and currently sits at 19. He was also nominated for CMA's 2006 Male Vocalist of the Year.

Tonight Bentley brings his beer-drinking, good-time, live music party to the Show Me Center with opener Miranda Lambert. Last week Bentley called in from the road to talk with the Southeast Missourian about beer, the touring life and his upcoming performance at the predominantly rock 'n' roll Bonnaroo music festival.

Q: You're known for keeping a tapped beer keg on stage at shows. Will we see the keg in Cape Girardeau?

A: Actually, it went from a tapped beer keg to just a refrigerator of beer. The keg was starting to get kind of smelly, and if you don't use it every day it starts getting hot, cold, hot, cold, and gets kind of sticky, so I figured out it's best to keep the beer hidden on stage in a little refrigerator that actually looks like a guitar amp so no one can even tell.

The crowd always gets a kick out of that, but we definitely keep our beer. Gotta keep it nearby.

Q: Is that what your live show is like -- a raucous, freewheeling party?

A: Yeah. We've toured a lot, we've put a lot of attention into the live shows. That's what I care about just as much as making records. So it's not just like free-for-all, just up there really loose. Like a song that's well-written, it might feel like it just flows off your tongue. But you think about all the work that goes into a good song, you strip it down, break it down, tear it up, put it back together, reassemble it and hopefully it comes out sounding like something you'd just say normally.

That's hopefully how our show is. It might look like we're up there just frolicking around and having a good time, and we are having a good time, but there's a lot of work that's gone into making it look that easy.

Q: When you're on the road, does the party go on after the show?

A: It depends on how many days I've got off after the show. If there's no days off, it's hard to party too much because you'll lose your voice. We have a cool hang-out room set up backstage so we can hang out there before and after the show. And sometimes whoever's on the road with us ... you get them out here and sometimes the party does spill onto the bus and it can be a pretty late night.

We don't think what we're doing on stage ... that's emotional ... and it takes me a while to wind down after the show, and sometimes I don't want to wind down. Sometimes I feel like I'm just waking up at 9 o'clock at night. So when 1 o'clock rolls around I'm not even close to being ready to go to sleep. But we definitely have a lot of fun.

I like to think the live show's a reflection of all the different types of music I have put out there. There's definitely the "What Was I Thinking and How Am I Doing," but certainly a song like "Long Trip Alone," which is more of a prayer than a love song ... there's a good mix of songs, and we do some bluegrass in the show as well. It's not all just drink beer, party time stuff.

Q: Do you have a crazy story about life on the road that you want to share?

A: There's stuff that happens all the time that's pretty mind boggling. About six months ago our steel player, Tim Sergent, he walked off the bus in the morning to get some food ... and he kind of slipped off without anyone knowing. And we got on the road and kept driving. He didn't have a cell phone and he didn't have any money on him either, so he finally borrowed someone's cell phone and got in touch with one of us and we went back and got him about an hour later. Always take a phone with you.

Q: You've got a live DVD coming out, right?

A: Yeah, it comes out March 20. We're trying to capture what we do on the road, certainly some of the smaller venues before we leave them behind. We played a bar in Denver called the Fillmore, about 4,000 people; it just really captures the energy we have as a band. It's country music, but hopefully it's been done in a way that's never been done before. I don't know how to describe it. There's a lot of energy through the songs, not just jumping around on stage, even though it seems like the longer the show goes the more sore I am after each night of playing. It gets kind of crazy every night.

Q: Do you prefer to play those smaller venues? Our venue is a pretty small venue.

A: I like variety. I just got done doing a nine-day, nine-show tour called the "High Times and Hangovers Tour" with a band called Cross Canadian Ragweed where we played nothing over 800 seats. Small, small capacity, little dive bars, that recharges the batteries and changes your perspectives a little bit.

Q: I saw you've been booked to play Bonnaroo, a rare thing for a country artist. How do you feel about it?

A: It's amazing, man. I've always wanted to go to Bonnaroo just as a fan, but we're always on the road, so now this is the best of both worlds, a chance to play and also to bring our kind of country music to a new crowd and also get a chance to be a fan. I love music of all genres. If I'm not listening to it for enjoyment, I'm watching someone play to learn what their live show's like.

Q: Is there any certain act that's a must-see for you?

A: We're only there for one day, so I'll be happy to see whoever I can. I don't think we're going to be able to see The Police, that would be amazing, but I'm curious to see what Tool would be like. And I'd like to learn a lot about bands that I don't know anything about.

Q: A local country station is doing a promotion for your concert where somebody gets front-row tickets for shaving their head. What do you think of that?

A: Wow!

That's a big deal, and I'm sure I'll probably be dragging them up on stage at some point to thank them. I'm glad you alerted me to that.

msanders@semissourian.com

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