Dierks Bentley Will Never Forget His Downtown Nashville Beginnings
“It’s authentic. That area down there is so special, so whenever you get the chance to go down there and play a few songs, it’s pretty cool," Bentley said.
When Dierks Bentley witnessed the madness of the Stanley Cup Final in downtown Nashville, it brought him back to the days when he played for tips up and down Honkytonk Row.
Bentley got his break after scrubbing his way to stardom from earning little to nothing in tips out on the Broadway strip. Reminiscing on the rundown town he once knew and seeing the progression over time in becoming a hot tourist area, the country singer couldn’t be more proud to solidify his rocky beginnings on the street of bright lights and guitar plucking.
“That whole area down there is, gosh… I saw a tweet that Brian Mansfield put out about how it’s not what NHL can do for Nashville, it’s what Nashville’s doing for the NHL. This town, for players to come here and these NHL associates and bigwigs to come here and walk out… this isn’t a downtown area that was recreated as an entertainment industry. It’s the authentic, real, living breathing area that’s grown. When I was playing down there in ’94, the mayor was trying to make it big back then, make downtown exciting, but people were still getting shot. There was no plan for that. It just naturally became what it is,” Bentley told Sounds Like Nashville and other media at his recent No. 1 party.
Any weekend nowadays, one could find countless visitors drifting from bar to bar and experiencing the magic that lies within the music and history that Nashville created. Even the bands in the bars earned massive respect from Bentley, who swept his way by all the local joints to make a living back before he blew up in the country music world.
“It’s authentic. That area down there is so special, so whenever you get the chance to go down there and play a few songs, it’s pretty cool. The people who go down there and play for a living, it’s not something I could go do. They’re professions. They know every song. They can entertain the drunkest of fans, which is a tough thing to do. It’s a lot of respect for the people who play down there,” said Bentley.
Bentley may not frequent Broadway as much anymore, but fans can still see him perform on his What the Hell Tour all summer long.
