Dierks Bentley has been confirmed by the Metro Council to fill the latest vacancy on the Nashville Airport Authority’s Board of Directors. He was nominated to the board last month by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry as her nominee.

“I just recently found out that the nomination was confirmed for my position on the Airport Authority Board, which is pretty cool,” says Dierks. “I think there’s nine members on this board. The board really helps kind of oversee the Nashville airports, the John Tune, where I fly out a bunch, and obviously, our bigger airport, our main airport BNA. But there’s a lot of expansion going on over there right now. The airport is the heart of the city. It is where, everything runs through the airport. We’ve always had a great airport. One of my favorite things about Nashville is the airport. It’s small and easy to use and you go to these other cities and it’s complicated. It’s tough as the city’s grown, the airport’s had to grow a little bit and there’s some changes that happened that kind of hurt at first, but they had to happen because our city is just exploding. I’m honored to get a chance to sit on this board and oversee some of the growth and try to make this airport as friendly as possible to all our fans that travel here to come and watch the concerts and obviously all of the commerce and business folks, as well.”

He started flying planes back in 1994 for the love of it, but then once he got married, it made a lot of sense to fly to and from tour dates and is a big advocate for aviation.

“I do love aviation. For me, it plays a central role in my life,” he says. “I couldn’t continue doing country music without flying, because I have a lot going on back here and my band guys do too. They all fly with me, and there’s less stress when we get out there. Our families are happy because we’ve been with them longer and our kids are happy, and we’re able to go out there and rock those shows even harder knowing that we’re getting as much time at home as we possibly can. It’s a big deal. Everyone who I’ve turned onto flying from Randy Houser to a bunch of people I’ve introduced to them to a six-cylinder engine, what a six-cylinder engine and one propeller can do for you. I mean, it’s a game-changer, so it’s been a big part of my life, something I’m a big advocate of and I’m really excited about being a part of the Airport Authority Board.”

He calls his plane “The Time Machine,” because it literally buys him time to spend with his family, which includes his beautiful wife Cassidy and his three children – Evie (rhymes with Chevy), Jordan and Knox.

Dierks is currently sitting inside the Top Five on the country charts with “Black,” the title track from his latest album.

Dierks is headlining his What the Hell Tour, featuring Jon Pardi and Cole Swindell, and they make a stop in Wichita, Kansas on Friday (May 5th).