ABC/Image Group LASince Dierks Bentley grew up in the Southwest, the holiday there was much different than what lots of folks envision for the yuletide — no Frosty, no one-horse-open-sleigh. Instead, it was much warmer.
“I grew up in Arizona, so we didn’t have like a white winter kind of deal…Once you experience that, it’s hard to go back and like celebrate Christmas in the desert…Me and my family and a couple other families would go out to the desert and bring a big turkey and just kinda have a cookout in the middle of the desert…and drink beers and ride four-wheelers and…well, I wouldn’t drink beers, but they would. We’d ride four-wheelers and horses and just kind of spend it out in the middle of the desert, which was kind of a cool way to spend Christmas. So whenever I think of Christmas, I always think of the desert, which is a little weird, but that’s just the way we did it out in Arizona,” he recalls.
He admits that before he had children, he’d grown weary of some of the typical trappings of the season, especially with a career that keeps him so busy.
“Christmas didn’t lose any of its real meaning, as far as its religious meaning with Jesus’ birthday,” Dierks says. “But as far as like the whole tree and all of the Christmas spirit stuff, the secular stuff, it just kind of goes away, to be honest.”
But now that he and wife Cassidy have Evie, Jordan and Knox, the “Riser” hitmaker says the wonder of the season is back.
“You have a family, and all of a sudden it’s like I’m all Clark Griswold out there decorating the tree, putting lights up around the house, you know. So, all of those things that you did as a kid and appreciated as a kid, you get a chance to do over again when you have kids, because you kinda become one again,” he reflects.
The father of three will co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards with Luke Bryan in Las Vegas next April, before heading overseas for four dates in Ireland and the United Kingdom later in the month.
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