Dierks Bentley Took a Chance With 'The Mountain'

Dierks Bentley admitted he was taking a chance with his recent The Mountain album, but it was a chance he was willing to take. The Arizona native intentionally left off some of the light-hearted songs he has included in the past – songs like "Drunk On a Plane" and "Somewhere on a Beach" – in favor of creating a record that was entirely and authentically him.

"I wanted to create our own sound," Bentley says (quote via PEOPLE). "I was like, 'Oh we got something really unique happening' and that was really cool, but at first it was also pretty scary."

Bentley has been playing songs from The Mountain on his Mountain High Tour, where he is already getting a positive fan reaction.

"The biggest reward is feeling like people get what I was trying to do," Bentley notes. "This album is meant to be inspiring and it has a lot of themes of gratitude in it. Seeing how different songs impact people — that's the most rewarding part, the fans' response."

Bentley grew up with a love of music, and even enjoyed karaoke before he became a singer. (His favorite karaoke song was "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol.) Those early times performing in front of small crowds, including when he performed for a handful of people in the beginning of his career, paved the way for the success he is having now.

"You learn to play with people right in your face. You can't avoid them. You can't hide from them," Bentley explains. "They're usually drunk and they're yelling out song requests and you have to learn to deal with that. It becomes like a contact sport more than just this thing where you're singing over the tops of their heads. When you get into big arenas, you have to try to take that same energy you had playing in the honky-tonks and the rock bars, and transfer it to places like Madison Square Garden, where we'll be Sept. 8."

The debut single from The Mountain, "Woman, Amen," just became a No. 1 hit. But the 42-year-old was thinking about his wife, Cassidy Black, and not necessarily chart success when he wrote the tune.

"I think any guy who's semi-conscious and trying to move down the evolutionary chain needs to listen to women," says Bentley. "My wife's dragged me through all sorts of dark ages and phases that I thought I knew what I was doing or [thought] I was right and it's like, 'C'mon, dummy. Follow me. I'll lead you towards where you want to be,' whether that was kids, like starting that train, which I wasn't really sure I was ready to start or having kids and trying to be a more conscious parent.

"I've learned a lot from her," he adds. "This song definitely, it's just an honest lyric, and hopefully a lot of people can connect to it."

Purchase The Mountain, and find a list of all of Bentley's upcoming shows, at dierks.com.

Photo Credit: Instagram/dierksbentley