Dierks Bentley has a deep connection to the mountains out West. He grew up in Arizona, climbing Camelback Mountain, while exploring the rocks and crevices and adventures it possessed. Mountain living was the impetus that eventually formulated his latest album, The Mountain.

“I really connect with nature. I know that sounds weird, but I’m made to be outside,” says Dierks. “I grew up in Arizona and there was a mountain in our backyard, a big, big mountain called Camelback Mountain. I started climbing it when I was four years old. I just took Knox up it for the first time, but I’m just so used to being around desert landscape, mountains and family trips to Colorado and summers spent working at Lake Powell, this massive lake on the Arizona-Utah border. Really out west is where I really come alive.”

Dierks played a show out there over the weekend and took aerial photos to post to Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoUXK5Hgln6/?taken-by=dierksbentley

“I lived with a mountain in my backyard,” he says. “And I looked at that mountain every day.”

Dierks is currently scaling the country singles “mountain” with his latest song, “Burning Man,” which features his tour mates Brothers Osborne.

He is nominated for a handful of CMA Awards, including album of the Year for The Mountain, as well as Male Vocalist and Musical Event of the Year for “Burning Man” with Brothers Osborne. The CMA Awards, which will be hosted once again by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 14th at 8pm ET on ABC.