NFL Draft: Dierks Bentley Calls It An 'All-Time High' for Nashville

Dierks Bentley is performing in Nashville over the weekend, taking the stage on Saturday night (April 27) for a concert for both the NFL Draft and runners participating in the St. Jude Rock 'N' Roll Marathon. With hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to descend on Music City for one weekend, Bentley has one message for the days ahead: bring it on.

"I feel like it's the amount of people coming in town or some events happening and, we're gonna blow the previous record on the weekend before," Bentley recently shared with PopCulture.com and other media. "It's crazy that in this town; being on the Airport Authority board, I knew every month the record number of people [coming here]. So having a draft here the same weekend as the marathon is another all-time high for Nashville.

"I feel like it says a lot about Nashville," he continued. "I was here when the Titans came and it was a really big deal. Obviously there's a big football community here in Tennessee, mid-south. To have the draft here ... I don't exactly know why the draft is so big. Football fans do, and they have it in our town. It's going to be incredible so we need to find that audience. I think country music goes down pretty well with a lot of our southern football fans. It's a great thing for the Titans and for all the football community here in Nashville."

The Arizona native hopes the NFL Draft gets fans ready for the upcoming football season in Nashville as well.

"I think people are excited for the Titans this year," Bentley said. "Excited about football. Getting ready to start thinking about it again and do the draft here, get a chance to be the guys up on stage leading the party. It's really exciting for me."

Luke Bryan will kick off the NFL Draft as part of ABC's coverage of the event, which will begin on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Friday night, Tim McGraw will do a free concert in Nashville, with Bentley's show, also free, on Saturday. More information on all of the events, including the concerts, can be found at NFLDraft.com.

Bentley will return to Nashville in June to perform for the annual CMA Fest. Find a list of all of Bentley's upcoming shows, including his CMA Fest schedule, and his dates on his Burning Man Tour, by visiting his website.

Photo Credit: Getty Images/Michael Tran