Dierks Bentley Slashes Through 'Hits'

Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

May 5, 2008 - Dierks Bentley has taken several unique steps with his first greatest hits album, due tomorrow. One of those steps is the hyper-involvement of his fans in creating the package. Another comes with the double slashes in the title.

Dierks is calling the album Greatest Hits//Every Mile A Memory 2003-2008. But if you ask him where the slashes came from, his answer borders on defensive.

"You think I stole that from U2?" he asks.

Well, no, actually.

"On U2's last album, they had a double-slash thing," he explains. "Someone said, 'Did you steal that from them?' I'm like, 'Dude, I had no idea. I just put it there to break up the font.'"

In fact, Bono and crew used their slashes slightly differently, separating the band name from the title on their album: U2// How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Actually, in Dierks' case, the double-font seems a sly representation of the fan involvement that transpired in the making of the album. Fans were encouraged to submit their choices for the title, the photos, and the bonus live tracks, with a promise that the first 3,000 participants would all be listed in the liner notes as executive producers. They did that through dierks.com, and since websites are invariably preceded by that http:// thing, one could easily deduce that the double-slash in Greatest Hits//Every Mile A Memory 2003-2008 is a tip of the hat to the CD's creative process.

"Http, I love that," he muses. "That's good. I'll steal that idea and use it as mine."

For the record, all 3,000 executive producers will indeed be stuffed into the packaging when the album comes out tomorrow. Dierks crammed 16 pages of liner notes inside the jewel case; six of them are filled with names.