Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Dickens Get Behind the Wheel for the Great Opry Drive In 2007

Dierks Bentley and Little Jimmy Dickens aren’t just the youngest and most tenured members of the Grand Ole Opry, respectively. They’re each particularly qualified to shell out expert advice on how to enjoy a great road trip AND how to occupy your time when you arrive at your destination: Nashville, Tennessee. We talked to the two buddies about the road and Music City during their photo shoot for this year’s Great Opry Drive In.

In the four years since Bentley first hit country radio, he’s logged more than 1,200 days on the road, playing everywhere from Cedar Falls to Great Falls and Kansas City to New York City.  Dickens, meanwhile, was the first country artist ever to circle the globe on tour. The 59-year Opry member says he didn’t get jetlag back then, “because I just kept going even after I got home.”

There’s a reason that Bentley is on his bus more than 300 days a year and that Dickens trotted the globe to the beat of a country song: they love it. “When I was in Nashville without a (record) deal, I just wanted to get out and play music,” Bentley said. “I love the bus. I love the guys in the band.”

Yet 14 years after Bentley first hit town and six decades after Dickens first made it to Nashville, both are still tempted by Music City’s siren song and yearn to head toward Tennessee whenever their paths lead elsewhere. “I came to Nashville for the first time in 1994,” Bentley says. “I knew it’s what I wanted to do. I’d just sit and say, ‘I’ve got to get to Nashville. I’ve got to get to Nashville.’ These days, his mantra is more like “I’ve got to get back to Nashville.” “There’s nothing like coming home to Nashville,” he says, “playing the Opry, then going to your own bed and your own pillow.” Dickens, too, says there’s nothing like being able to be around home during the day, hit a neighborhood fishing hole with a buddy or two, then still be able to hit the Opry that night.

Two guys who love the road and the road home to Nashville.

Tips for the Road from Dierks and Jimmy:

Q: What do you need for a great road trip?
Dierks: “Music and gas.”
Jimmy:  “OK, a guitar comes first. Then a rhinestone wardrobe would come next.”

Q: What are some “must-sees” when visiting Nashville?
Dierks: “Well, you have to do the Opry. It represents Nashville better than anything else. The Station Inn has great bluegrass, and acoustic music, and Nashville has a lot of good restaurants—lots of ‘em in Hillsboro Village. And find a friend with a boat and go out on Percy Priest Lake.”
Jimmy: “You definitely need to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. And it wouldn’t be Nashville if you didn’t go to Tootsie’s.”
Q: Have you ever darkened the door there (Tootsie’s)?
Jimmy:  (laughter) “Many times. Many, many times.”

Q: What’s the best music for the road?
Dierks:  “You have to have a great CD selection right next to you—those black folders. I haven’t been able to get away like that lately, but on my last trip I drove to Memphis and listened to the entire Hank Williams box set. It set a great tone for the whole trip.”
Jimmy: Traditional country. Bluegrass. Today’s country music. I love all kinds of music.”

Q: What do you think would be the most fun part of taking a road trip together? If the two of you took a road trip, who’d do the driving?
Jimmy:  “Dierks is a fun guy. A very congenial young man. I don’t think Dierks would get me in trouble. If the two of us took a road trip, I guess it’d be the bus driver doing the driving!”

by Dan Rogers

Visit the Great Opry Drive In to plan your own road trip to Nashville this summer!