Dierks Bentley can’t come through St. Louis without thinking about the time his band left him there.
“We had lots of friends hanging out on the bus,” Bentley remembers. “It was one o’clock in the morning and I went from the bus back to the dressing room and took a shower. I came back out, and everyone was gone. All my trucks are gone, all my buses are gone. I was the only person left in the venue in St. Louis.”
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Bentley proceeded to call his bus driver, who at that point was already a half hour away. “They thought I was still on the bus in my bunk asleep,” he laughs. “I remember just sitting on the stage at the venue waiting for them to come get me.”
Hopefully, Bentley doesn’t experience the same fate on August 22, when the “Drunk on a Plane” hitmaker makes his way back to Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre on his wildly popular Gravel & Gold Tour.
“I like to leave the door to spontaneity open,” says Bentley of his always electric live show. His concerts include a dynamic setlist filled with bangers from his two-decade long career. “At any moment, I can go off-script. I’m not here to put on a show. I’m here to create an experience for you and for me and for everyone involved.”
Chances are good that St. Louis becomes the setting for another spontaneous experience courtesy of the multi-platinum entertainer, especially since he has several friends—including some past teammates—here.
“I would imagine we will have a lot of the St. Louis Blues Alumni Association hockey players that I had a chance to play with earlier this year,” says Bentley. “We’ve had some great friends come out that love music and love the show, and we try to include anybody and everybody.”
It’s all about “creating a moment that you couldn’t see anywhere else,” says Bentley, who will also be joined by Chase Rice on the St. Louis tour stop. “I want to walk out on stage and feel the same sense of joy and wonder that I felt the first time I ever walked on that stage.”
