Dierks Bentley has four nominations, including Male Vocalist, Album of the Year for Black, Music Video for “Somewhere on a Beach” and Musical Event of the Year for “Different for Girls” with Elle King, who scores her first CMA nomination.
“There’s so many talented people in this town, so anybody who thinks [the honor is] a cliché has no idea how hard it is to make it,” he tells Rolling Stone Country. “It’s a really big deal to be one of the five people on any one of these cards I’m holding. So for a new artists out there, or maybe an artist who’s been struggling for a little while and they’re finding their footing again and are on one of these lists, it’s a tremendous honor.”
The 50th Annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 2nd at 8pm ET on ABC.
Audio / Dierks Bentley reacts to his four CMA nominations.
DownloadDierks Bentley (CMA 2016 reaction) OC: …huge honor. :40
“It feels great to be nominated for four CMAs. You know, I was driving down here to do this, and I wasn’t really even thinking about the fact that I might possibly hear about me being nominated. I just didn’t put two-and-two together. I’m not that bright, I guess. [laughs] So, when I got down there, I’m like, ‘Oh wait. I might be reading my own nominations today, which is amazing. You work so hard on your music, and the most important audience is your fans and that’s where we take our show every night. I get validated on stage every night just by that direct interaction with our fans, but it’s great to have that recognition from your peers and this town. Just to be one of the five people nominated for any category the CMA has to offer is a huge honor.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley says his new Black album shows a lot of growth and maturity.
DownloadDierks Bentley (growth in album) OC: …understand it. :56
“The record when people listen to it, they’re gonna hear right away that it’s about relationships and hopefully, project their own history and storyline and relationships into this particular album. For me, it has a thread of this guy who starts off in this one place with the song ‘Black,’ kind of in the moment with this one girl and then the cracks and the fissures start to show themselves. The next song, ‘Pick Up,’ you have this desperation and then ‘I’ll Be the Moon,’ there’s some deception going on, and then it just kind of goes from there. It’s a real story about just the highs and lows and really the maturity that I guess I go through, this singer goes through, throughout the album. You know the same guy that’s singing ‘Somewhere on a Beach,’ by the end of the record is singing a song called ‘Different for Girls,’ where he’s obviously matured enough to see that there is a different way that girls and guys handle breakups sometimes and there’s also a stereotype that goes along with that unfortunately, as well, too. A lot of growth throughout the record, but it’s all about relationships and this one person’s journey through love and trying to understand it.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about having Elle King sing on the song, “Different For Girls” on his new album, Black.
DownloadDierks Bentley (Elle King) OC: …new place. :36
“Well, I love Elle King’s voice. I mean she has such a unique voice, and you never know if her voice is going to blend with your voice. I didn’t found out until I went down to the studio in Austin, and right away it was just a really natural sounding blend. Her voice just lifted up this song. The lyrics of this song are pretty strong and her voice on this particular song really takes the song to a whole other level. I really wanted to find a way for her not to just be background vocals. I wanted to find a way to really get her included in the song, so I gave her the second verse and made the song more of a conversation as opposed to just background vocals. And it really, it just took the song to a whole new place.”
