Dierks Bentley may just be the perfect performer for the country music fans who go to the Legendary Buffalo Chip during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  He’ll play there on Friday, Aug. 8.

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Dierks Bentley and his band could borrow a line from James Brown and call themselves the hardest working band in Country Music. In his first full year with a major label, Bentley and his band were on the road for 300 days.

Like most of the bikers who come to the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Dierks, could find no better way to discover America. When sitting in the front of his bus, he declined the driver’s offer to bring a television monitor forward, opting instead to drink in the America he saw passing by.

At many of the small town fairs and festivals he visits, he’s the biggest thing happening in the town for some time. "I want to wake up every morning thinking I've got to make the most of this day," he says of the road. "If we're playing a corn dog fair, I get out there and check out the horses and the cows and the prizes and hang out and meet people."

Bentley grew up surrounded in the ‘70s by FM rock and disco. But Country made its mark. "Rock music just didn't really resonate. It was almost there, but it wasn't there. I just couldn't sing like David Lee Roth. And I wasted three years listening to a lot of bad ‘80s hair bands."

Hank Williams, Jr. singing "Man to Man" made the difference for then 17-year-old Bentley. "That moment really changed my whole perspective," he said. "Everything just clicked. I just knew I loved country music."

He started writing songs. He learned to play rhythm guitar. He went to Nashville.  When he was about to become discouraged, he used a fake ID to visit the fabled bluegrass bar, The Station Inn.  And, now he’s on his way to the Legendary Buffalo Chip.

"Thank God I walked in there," he says. "Bluegrass gave me my whole foundation. I thought: these people and this music and this building; this is where I'm going to build from."

Bentley’s first single, “What Was I Thinkin’” shot to Number 1 like a Sturgis Rally hill climber squirts full throttle to the top of the dirt.

He followed that with two more hit singles.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  Bentley has become a hit making machine and one of the youngest performers to ever be invited to join the Grand Ole Opre.

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