Free and easy down the road he goes… but not unencumbered by company. Because country star Dierks Bentley is nothing if not a solid curator of younger opening acts and heroes alike. His summer Off the Map Tour, a 12-city outing, has some of the best triple bills you could find in or out of country or roots music this year, bringing in a number of acts that skew toward traditional country or bluegrass — including Country Hall of Famer Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder as direct support on nearly every date.
Bentley is well-known as a knowledgeable and accomplished bluegrass head, when he’s not generating mainstream country sing-alongs, which is most of the time. He did a bona fide bluegrass album after rising to stardom, 2010’s “Up on the Ridge,” and still usually devotes a segment of his concerts to a string-band interlude. A very different side of Bentley is evident in another nightly part of the show, when he and his band dress up in wigs and costuming as Hot Country Knights, looking goofy but playing it nearly straight musically with a salute to ‘90s country. Somehow, Bentley’s support act plays to both those sensibilities, since Skaggs was a mainstream Nashville star who went bluegrass, and now is veering back a little bit, as a live attraction.
The shows also include the charming Kaitlin Butts as the opening act on three of the nights, with Cole Goodwin, Owen Riegling and Mountain Grass Unit kicking things off on the other shows. (Scroll down past the Q&A to see the full lineup of shows and bills.) Tickets went on sale Friday morning and can be found at Dierks.com.
Meanwhile, here’s what the off-roading, off-mapping headliner had to tell Variety about the June and July tour (which he’ll undertake after opening for Luke Combs in stadiums in the spring).
Any special meaning behind calling this the Off the Map Tour, beyond that being a recent song title?
It’s a song I wish it made it to radio. You know, I’m still old school; I love hearing songs on the radio, and that was one of my favorite songs off that last record. And naming your tour after something definitely gives you a reason to do a song that hasn’t gotten as much exposure as some of the other stuff. But I love what that song says. It talks about how being off the map could be anywhere. It could be on a bar stool; it could be on your couch; it could be at the beach, too. It could anywhere you go to get away from everything mentally. And I feel like a live show is still that, especially in a world with so many distractions and so many things being replaced by AI and automation. That’s just a chance to totally get away from your problems and take a break from yourself. Kinda like “What About Bob?,” the movie where he’s on a vacation from himself. I think that’s what all shows are, and I hope our show feels that way for the people that come out there.
Dierks Bentley tour poster
It’s a kind of sequel, maybe, to the touring you’d already been doing last year behind the “Broken Branches” tour?
Yeah, a little bit of a branch of the Broken Branches Tour, still kind of working off that album a little bit. We look for the best opening acts, and feel very fortunate over the years to get a chance to share the road with a lot of great people. I love live music and don’t get out to go see as much as I would like to, so I always try to pick tourmates who I love and want to watch over and over again. It’s great for the fans, but also selfishly for me, these people I wanna go watch their show, maybe drink a beer with, before or after, or who inspire me or are heroes. This year is an eclectic mix of people, but all folks I’m hugely respectful of.
Ricky Skaggs has to fall under the hero category.
Ricky Skaggs is this dream come true, to get a chance to hang out with him and his band or just be in the same room with him. We did a little tour promo the other day and I’m playing guitar next to Ricky Skaggs — it’s ridiculous. And he’s so pumped. He’s going back and doing his country stuff. They started doing it a few years ago, and people have always been yelling for his big country hits, and now they’re doing ’em again. So I think he’s really excited to go out there and see what that feels like.
When he does those old country hits now, does he kind of bluegrass them up a little bit, or does he do them the way that people know them?
No, he said when he was doing the straight bluegrass thing, he didn’t have the equipment he needed to really give those songs the justice they deserve. But now, he’s carrying the guys and musicians and equipment he needs to play those songs. I can’t wait to hear “Honey” and “Crying My Heart Out Over You” and of course “Heartbroke” and “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could,” just all the classics, as well as all the bluegrass stuff. I’m a fan of both. I always tell people, and I told him this too, when I first got into bluegrass music, I loved the Del McCoury Band. Those guys are my friends and I love the way they work the microphone, usually one mic, sometimes two mics in and out, and the little dance they do. But I told people back then, if you want to hear bluegrass music for the first time, you should go see Ricky Skaggs. Because it’s just the power of the band — five, six guys across the front with microphones on their instruments, and it just is a powerful sound. So I love his bluegrass stuff, but I’m hoping it’ll be a little bit of both. He’s one of the greatest of all time. And to have him on the road with us is pretty awesome especially because two of the guys in my band came from the Ricky Skaggs school of bluegrass and country music — you know, former pickers in his band. So it’s a sweet deal. … I’m gonna regret having to go on after him, but I don’t care anymore. If he blows me away, that’s fine.
People would generally agree that of all the mainstream country stars out there now, no one surpasses you as far as really having an appreciation and aptitude for bluegrass. You’ve done so much to either support the artists of that genre or just enjoying playing with it yourself. Whether it’s being on the CMAs and playing with Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull, to playing with the Del McCoury Band all the way way back in 2005, you have such a history of that. And, even when it’s not that overt, you’ve got the dobro or mandolin even on a lot of your mainstream songs. It seems like it comes close to being a mission with you, without being quite maybe that overtly evangelistic about it.
It’s interesting — if I look back on it in that way, yeah, it does kind of appear like a mission of sorts. And I guess it is, but it’s definitely not conscious in some ways. It’s more that I just think everyone just gravitates towards what think they think is cool. And for me, when I got turned onto bluegrass music back in the day and these guys, with just their love of the music and putting the music above anything else, it wasn’t about fame or fortune, and still isn’t for bluegrass musicians. It’s about just loving to play the music, loving the sound, loving being a part of the history of it. I’ve always had such respect for these guys. To be a great musician, you’ve gotta study all the guys that came before you that played that instrument and all the different styles. Any banjo player today has to learn the way Ralph Stanley did it and the way certainly Earl Scruggs did it, and just different styles of playing, before you can begin to add your own thing to it. I’ve always loved it and still love it as much as ever.
And you mentioned Molly Tuttle — her new album that came out last year is unbelievable, and I love what kind of direction she’s taken. Sierra Hull, I mean, she’s incredible. We had a chance to play a show with her up at the festival in Kentucky, and she’s sat in with us. And, yeah, I was lucky to get a chance to promote them a little bit, I guess, but they make me look very cool by hanging out with me, so I feel very lucky in that regard.
Also on this tour, we got the Mountain Grass Unit coming out that’s just unbelievable. These guys are so great. It’s kind of that Billy Strings vein a little bit, or just that hard bluegrass sound, somehow just taking three-chord bluegrass and reinventing it in a way where the kids think it’s something totally new. And the way they’re doing it obviously is new. They’re doing a way that’s just getting a lot of people interested. So, it can be very fun to have those guys not only on stage, but also before and after the shows doing a little backstage picking. I mean, quite some good TikTak content coming there for sure — as I call it, to bother my kids. The old TikTak machine will be full bluegrass on my channel, for sure, when this tour starts off.
All the acts are personal picks?
Yeah. Cole Goodwin, I’m just a fan. He is kind in the Zach Top lane. He is actually buddies to all those guys, so I’ve known about him for a little bit as I got to know Zach Top’s band pretty well last year, and he was around a little bit. We played a show together over at the Ryman; I think it was for Ernest was doing something over there and he invited me out, and Cole was there as well too. So we went across the street to Tootsies’ upstairs bar and caught up for a little bit. He’s a great kid. He loves that traditional kind of ‘90s sound, and I could see him being the honorary Hot Country Knight for sure on this tour. But just could not be a nicer person and just seems like a great human.
Owen Riegling, I’ve never met before. A Canadian guy, love his music. Just had a chance to see him, and that’s why I’m bringing him out on the road. He’s just kind of a really great thing going and seems like someone you wanna watch and would be good company backstage as well too. So I’m looking forward to having someone that’s got that young, fresh energy on the road.
Kaitlin Butts is a dynamo.
We’ve done shows before in the past, and she’s awesome. I’m a huge fan of hers and everything she does. I think she might have been out on that Cross Canadian Ragweed stadium show they did in Oklahoma last year. There’s just so many people that love her music and love what she does, and I’m one of ’em. You know, I cut a song that I wrote with Tim O’Brien called “You’re Dead to Me.” And she had something that was similar to that deal, “You Ain’t Gotta Die (to Be Dead to Me).” Her social media game is definitely up to snuff; everything she was doing with that song was such a great way of promoting it. We need to do a mashup version of her “Dead to Me” and my “You’re Dead to Me,” and we’ll have a double murder ballad out there on the road that’ll really get the fans excited.
That would be a moment.
Oh God, probably better not. Just stick to “The Beer’s on Me.” Probably my better choice.
Just collaboratively in general, you’re always kind of looking up and looking down, generationally, because you obviously have that respect for your elders. I appreciated that on this most recent album you had John Anderson on one track and then you had Stephen Wilson Jr. on another, giving a leg up.
I really love him and am excited that he’s doing so well. He’s great, huh? I feel lucky to kind of have tapped into some people all along. Kacey Musgraves was on a record. Maren Morris, back from before it really popped. I get ’em before they’re too big, then I can’t get ’em after that. So it’s not by choice, it’s by by survival. I have to go find them before they move on. Brandi Carlile, I had her early on, before she’d even even been on aany award show. Hardy and I collaborated a bunch when he was just getting started. This has nothing to do with me; I think I’ve been able to spot some folks there coming up.
Stephen Wilson Jr., on the day we started hanging out a couple years ago, the first time he wrote together, he rolled into the writing session driving an old station wagon with a donut tire on it. I mean, this guy’s so cool. And just being around him was just like, wow. This is just the way he writes; it’s so different than anybody else. This song he has out now, “Gary,” I heard that the first time and thought: You know what? Everyone’s using Chat GPT to write songs, but I promise you, Chat GPT could not write that song. There’s no AI model that could write “Gary.” I’ve been doing our song “Cold Beer Can” during our show, and I’m just so happy to see his success. And I had John Anderson and Riley Green on a track together, and just being around those two guys was pretty great, being in the middle slot there between Young Riley and Hall of Fame John. It was a really good time making that album.
What part of your show do you have the most fun doing these days?
Well, gosh, I love my band so much. In the middle section, our guitar player, Ben Helson, has been doing a little bit of Tony Rice, getting a little bit of that bluegrass sound, and just watching him just tear it up has been killer… I mean, the Knights is probably still my favorite part. We open, basically, for the Knights. The Hot Country Knights close every show…. But there’s not any part of the show that’s not fun. If there’s a part that’s not fun, I find a way to flip it around and make it fun. Now sometimes the middle part of the show can be boring, but we do this bluegrass thing, and now it’s my favorite part.
With all the opening acts you have, I wasn’t sure if you still had a chance to do Hot Country Knights.
They used to go on kind of incognito early on, but now they close the show, so that’s how it ends. I walk back out with a couple bananas in my pants. We do “Drunk on a Plane,” then the Knights come back out and do anywhere from 10-15 minutes of medleys. Well, they call ’em “melodies,” because they’re a bunch of idiots, but medleys, just getting away with stuff on stage that nobody should be able to get away with, at least playing for the size of some of the crowds we play for. So that’s still every night we do that. It’s ridiculous, but that’s what makes the road pretty fun sometimes.
Do you think you’ll get Ricky to be a Hot Country Knight?
I’m hoping he’ll do it. He probably would. He’s got a great sense of humor and I can see him coming out for a little Country Knight action, for sure. We might have to find extra long wigs; he’s already got some pretty long hair. We’ll find a way to get him out there if he’s willing to do it. I could definitely see Kaitlin being up for it.
The problem is, everyone wants to do it, and last year was the first time we ever let anyone else come out there, because it’s a pretty well-rehearsed deal. It’s the end of the night, and after you just finished “Drunk on a Plane,” it can’t be sloppy. It has to be totally pro, and there’s a lot of work that goes into orchestrating it so it’s just dialed in and perfect. Everyone else wants to do it, but we’ve never been able to get ’em there because it can’t be a big, sloppy mess. But last year, as it happened, Zach Top on the road was just too good to pass up, and he was perfect at it. He came back out in a very tightly cut pair of cut-off jeans and no shirt and cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and he fit the part pretty well. He didn’t have to wear a wig; he just took his natural hair, which you never see because it’s under a hat, and kind of puffed it all out. One night we had him and Post Malone out there together. It was definitely one of the bigger nights of the Hot Country Knights.
OFF THE MAP TOUR Dates:
6/12 – Rogers, AR < ~
6/13 – Kansas City, MO < ~
6/25 – Bonner, MT ! #
6/26 – Airway Heights, WA * #
7/2 – Colorado Springs, CO < #
7/9 – Gilford, NH < *
7/10 – Bridgeport, CT < *
7/11 – Canandaigua, NY < *
7/16 – Wilmington, NC < #
7/17 – Charleston, SC < #
7/18 – St. Augustine, FL < #
< Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
* Kaitlin Butts
# Cole Goodwin
~ Owen Riegling
! Mountain Grass Unit
Source: variety.com
