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Dierks Bentley Revealed He Didn’t Like The Nashville Scene When He First Moved There

By Mandy Robinson
Published on: 08:31 PST, Apr 2, 2016

Dierks Bentley is now a huge name in country music; but, when he first went to Nashville, Dierks wasn’t a huge fan of the country scene. Things did not go as planned for him and Dierks even wondered if he was in the right place. The Boot shared what Dierks had to say during a recent interview. Even as a young child, Dierks knew that he wanted to be a singer, but he had to find his place.

During his second year of college, Dierks made the transfer to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University, where he could work on his music career. This seemed like the perfect place for him, but when he first got to Nashville it wasn’t all that he had hoped for. It took Dierks a bit of time to find his place. Dierks shared how things went when he first got to town.

“When I got to Nashville, the first thing I did was actually get an internship with the Country Music Association, like on day two of being here. [I wanted to] figure out what made Nashville spin, what worked. I got turned off pretty quickly, just by the music scene. It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. Everyone was trying to follow Garth Brooks, and he’s a hard guy to follow. I was looking for the source: Where’s the heart of this town? I really wasn’t finding it there, on 16th and 17th Avenue.”

Of course, Dierks Bentley didn’t just leave Nashville. He stuck around. Dierks found Station Inn, which focuses a lot on bluegrass music. If you are a fan of Bentley, you know his love for this genre and he fit in perfectly there. Dierks Bentley revealed that the people there were not wearing starched jeans and big belt buckles. He fit in better and that was how he found his way.

Dierks loved that the people at Station Inn wore normal clothes and just had a love for country music. They were “open and non-competitive,” which was something else he was a big fan of and liked about it. Dierks Bentley would go there every Tuesday night for about five years.

Now, Dierks Bentley will be co-hosting the big ACM Awards on Sunday night alongside Luke Bryan. He is taking over for Blake Shelton. Dierks did share that he has a few fears going into the awards show. Billboard shared what Dierks had to say about his fears about being a show host. He admitted that his biggest fear is that he will end up at the podium naked because he has dreams this is how it goes down every night.

When it comes to advice for the big night, Dierks Bentley hasn’t heard from Blake Shelton, but he knows that he is busy out in L.A. The big show is in Las Vegas. Dierks shares that he starts out at the small tables when gambling and doesn’t bet a lot, but he likes to watch Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan because they aren’t afraid to bet a little more. Dierks doesn’t expect to win the male vocalist of the year award tomorrow night, but he shares how he feels it might go down if they give it to him.

“I’m nominated in the same category as Chris Stapleton. If I won male vocalist of the year, I would probably go and hand him the trophy, because he is one of the greatest in any genre.”

Are you surprised to hear that Dierks Bentley didn’t love Nashville right away? Do you think that he will be a great co-host with Luke Bryan at the ACM Awards? Don’t miss him on Sunday night during the big event.

[Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Country Music Hall Of Fame & Museum]

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