Dierks Bentley has both Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw to thank for him becoming a pilot. Bentley recalls early in his career, realizing the freedom that comes from an artist being able to fly to their own show, unaware that he would someday have that same freedom.
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It all started when Bentley, still new in his career, was invited to fly back on Chesney's private plane, along with Keith Urban, in 2004.
"It's the three of us in this little private plane," Bentley recalls on Bobbycast (via Country Now). "We landed back in Nashville, and we pulled into a different airport, not the big airport, but a small little building. I remember looking up and the building said 'Signature,' which is a fixed base operator for private jets."
Bentley was so in awe of the experience that he started using the word "Signature" as his computer password, so he would have to type it in every day. Years later, it still seemed unlikely that Bentley's dream would come to fruition.
"2008, 2009, my career is totally going off a cliff," Bentley remembers. "I went out there, tried to headline. I spent two years just getting my butt kicked, playing these arenas we'd already booked. I'm playing for like 2,500 people...and that went on for a while, but I'm still typing that thing in there every day."
How Tim McGraw Inspired Dierks Bentley To Become A Pilot
It was during that time, when Bentley was playing a show with Halfway to Hazard, where he saw McGraw in the air, flying to the same show.
"We start talking about the plane," the Grand Ole Opry member recounts. "It's this new plane called a Cirrus. It has a parachute built into the airframe. If there's an accident, you pull the handle and the whole plane comes down under a canopy. He's like, 'It's the only plane that my wife, Faith, will let me fly in.'"
McGraw introduced Bentley to his own flight instructor, and the rest is history.
"If you're going to play a gig in Indiana, even though it's only a two-hour drive, you're still going to leave at midnight on the bus to get there," Bentely explains. "You lose a whole day of your kids, a whole night at home. Now I'm flying a straight line. This little propeller plane... got totally hooked into it. And I remember thinking, 'Well, it's never going to come true, the dream I had.' But this is pretty cool. I'm getting more time at home."
