Dierks Bentley has released his new single “What the Hell Did I Say” to radio. The song was written by Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, who wrote Dierks’ No. 1 hit “Drunk on a Plane,” along with the singer’s producer Ross Copperman, Dierks loves the song and it’s one of his favorite songs to perform live.
“‘What the Hell Did I Say’ is one of the first songs that I heard that I didn’t write, that I fell in love with and knew I wanted it to be on this record. It’s actually written by two of the guys that I wrote ‘Drunk on a Plane.’ They didn’t call me up, but they wrote it with my producer, Ross [Copperman], and they knew it’d be a great song for me and that I’d love it,” says Dierks. “That song is one of my favorite songs to sing every night…I knew ‘What the Hell’ was gonna be a really fun song on the album.”
“What the Hell Did I Say” follows three consecutive No. 1 singles from his album Black – “Somewhere on a Beach,” “Different for Girls” and the gold-certified title track, and it’s also the idea behind his What the Hell Tour, which features Jon Pardi and Cole Swindell. “We named the tour after this song hoping that it would be a single this summer because it perfectly captures the anything-goes spirit out there this year,” said Bentley. “It’s crazy right now with Cole and Pardi…every night is better than the one before…just when you think it can’t get any more fun, it does. I’ve worked my whole career to have a tour like this one.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the song “What the Hell Did I Say,” from his new album, Black.
DownloadDierks Bentley (What the Hell Did I Say) 1 OC: …the album. :40
“‘What the Hell Did I Say’ is one of the first songs that I heard that I didn’t write, that I fell in love with and knew I wanted it to be on this record. It’s actually written by two of the guys that I wrote ‘Drunk on a Plane.’ They didn’t call me up, but they wrote it with my producer, Ross [Copperman], and they knew it’d be a great song for me and that I’d love it. You know, I’ve learned over the years of making records that, really in the last couple of years, it’s okay to have some of those fun songs on there. Sometimes when I go into album-making mode, I get so serious, and I almost didn’t cut ‘Drunk on a Plane,’ even though I wrote it. I look back at that now and I think, ‘What was I thinking not to have?’ That song is one of my favorite songs to sing every night. So, I didn’t make that mistake this time around. I knew ‘What the Hell’ was gonna be a really fun song on the album. I just didn’t know where it was going to fit on the album.”
