Dierks Bentley’s No. 1: Leave it to Beavers

Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Aug. 11, 2009 — Dierks Bentley piled 16 people into the back of a white Chevy pickup he’s owned for 15 years on Tuesday, a heavyweight accomplishment to celebrate a song with a not-so-heavy lyric.

"Sideways," a simple party tune that Dierks currently uses to kick off his concerts, went to No. 1 this summer, and he joined a mass of Music Row associates — including brothers Jim and Brett Beavers — in the parking lot at his publishing company, Sony ATV, to celebrate the accomplishment.

The truck — nicknamed "Big White" — and the parking lot were symbolic. The vehicle is closing in on 200,000 or 250,000 miles on the odometer, the handle on the driver’s side is beat up and it took extra effort to lower the tailgate before they started loading in executives to make the cursory presentation of plaques and awards. Old and worn though it might be, the truck is where Dierks previews each of his albums — "the Big White test," he called it — to "find out how real fans are gonna listen to it."

The parking lot was also the site of Dierks’ first No. 1 party, for "What Was I Thinkin’," which set up a tongue-in-cheek mini-rivalry between Jim and Brett Beavers, both of whom are among Dierks’ regular co-writers. Brett, Dierks’ producer, was a co-author of "What Was I Thinkin’," and when Jim attended the party for that song in 2003, he was a tad jealous of his brother’s success.

"I remember makin’ myself a promise that one day I would have a No. 1 party," Jim told the crowd, "and it would be in this parking lot, too!"

Jim promptly offered up a nod of thanks to Brett, who’s "been like a brother to me."

Jim is actually on a roll. The event was his third No. 1 party in the last 18 months, following his achievements as a writer of Gary Allan’s "Watching Airplanes" and Billy Currington’s "Don’t." It’s the third Dierks hit he’s co-written ("How Am I Doin’" and "Trying To Stop Your Leaving" are the others), and it grew out of their regular routine of writing together. Dierks had come up with the "Sideways" title and a basic outline of the chorus, and they essentially wrote it in less than three hours after Dierks went skateboarding one morning.

"I think I was comin’ back from a night at The Spot, a little bar [owned by John Rich] here in town," Dierks said. "I remember tellin’ someone, ‘Yeah, things got a little hazy, things were a little squirrelly last night, we got a little sideways’ — just this term I started using to describe those nights when you go out and have a good time and can’t completely recall every detail of the night before. But when we were writing the song, we were talkin’ about not just an alcohol-related tune, but it’s about having a good time, cuttin’ loose, lettin’ loose of your inhibitions and having fun. From watching NASCAR, you always hear about someone gettin’ sideways in turn four, gettin’ a little loose, having fun, so I thought it’d be a good term for a country song."

Jim and Dierks poked fun at the simplicity of the lyrics — "Hopefully," Dierks deadpanned, "we won’t be remembered for that" — but they work quite well with the good-time nature of the song.

It got an extra push from the Beaver clan in the studio. As Brett produced the track, he and Dierks put together a "gang vocal" chorus that included Brett’s wife, son and daughter. There was also a cluster of people from Capitol Records, including label chief Mike Dungan and former radio promotion executive Jimmy Harnen. Thus once the song got released as a single, the Capitol employees were promoting a recording that had their own voices on it.

"They kinda [got] a little taste, a little enthusiasm goin’ forward, which helped in the long run for the song," Brett said. "Politically it’s a pretty cool move!"

As to the competition between Jim and Brett, the Beavers still write together every week. And Dierks wrote his newest single, "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes," with Brett.