Dierks Bentley Talks New Year’s Eve Traditions Past and Present
New Year’s Eve is a holiday that can take on different forms depending on the person, and Dierks Bentley says he has lived out almost every New Year’s Eve tradition throughout the years. In recent years, he and his family have started a new NYE tradition.
“I’ve spent the last few New Year’s Eves out in Colorado, so just going skiing on New Year’s Day was always a big tradition. The whole family, everyone goes to ski together,” Bentley told Sounds Like Nashville and other reporters. “I’ve had so many different versions of New Year’s Eve depending on what phase of life I’m in. There’s been some New Years recently where I like to be sound asleep by the time 12 o’clock rolls around so I can have a great start to the New Year and not be hungover and starting the year off on the wrong foot.”
Bentley also remembers New Year’s Eve celebrations from his childhood. The singer says the holiday was often spent with his parents at a cabin in Colorado.
“I spent most of my New Years as a kid in the little town of Durango, Colorado, and my parents had a 12-inch, black and white TV,” he shared. “For better or worse, I’d watch the ball drop in Times Square on this little black and white TV, wishing I was back with my buddies getting in trouble back in Phoenix. My parents wisely took me out of Phoenix for for the holidays and we just spent it in a little cabin.”
This year, Bentley will be spending New Year’s Eve in Nashville performing on the CBS special, New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash. The show will feature performances from more than 50 country artists from Nashville’s Bicentennial Park and other venues in Music City.
“This is kind of a new tradition, to be in Nashville and to be playing a show,” he says. “I can’t remember the last time I played a show during New Year’s Eve, so I feel like coming out of the pandemic, it’s all about new — making new traditions, and having gratitude for old things that you might have taken for granted.”
Bentley says 2022 is also the year he will reprise another special New Year’s tradition: his semi-annual lake jump into the frigid waters of Nashville’s Percy Priest Lake.
“I’ve been in Colorado for the last, I don’t know how many Christmases and New Year’s Eves, but I’ll be here in the city this year and I’ll be out at Percy Priest getting in the cold water,” he says. “It’s really not that cold. It’s not Colorado cold. It’s in the 50s. We’ll get in and do our little lake jump this year, and it’s been a while, but definitely looking forward to doing that.”
