If you had all the money and fame you could want, would you ditch ruby red Tennessee for the wasteland-like city that is LA outside of the glittering mansions of the movie stars and oligarchs? No? Neither does Dierks Bently, who just said that he has no intention of moving to Los Angeles for a variety of reasons.
His remarks on the matter came in the context of his being asked if he’d like to star in the TV shows and other activities based in Los Angeles in which he has been invited to participate. Responding, Bentley said that he is content with his career in country music, based out of Nashville, and doesn’t want to move to LA for activities in which he thinks he would struggle.
Speaking on the matter to Entertainment Tonight, Bentley said, “I don’t think I’d be good enough to doing those things. It requires, like, more time away from home and I just, I don’t want to. I had a chance to audition for Larry David and I decided not to do it. Because again, I’m like, ‘Oh, if I get it, I don’t really want to go to L.A.’” Continuing, he added, “I got a great gig. I love what I do.”
Separately, in an interview with People, Bentley previously said that he lived in Colorado up until the pandemic, “I was living in Colorado and all I knew for sure is that I just wanted to stay there. I remember the song ‘Gone’ got pitched to me and my wife heard it, and she really loved it. So I cut it, but I still was at this point that I wasn’t really thinking about music at all.”
So, he moved from Colorado back to the town where he cut his teeth in country music: Nashville. Speaking about how great the area in which he now lives is for his family and kids, particularly given the safety and low crime that allows street parking and a casual attitude toward coming and going, Bentley said: “I moved about 10 minutes closer to town than I was before. It’s a regular neighborhood. We’ve got kids coming in and out of the house and you can just park on the street. It’s just been great for my kids, great for our family, and great for my mental health.”
He added that the situation is changing, however, as Nashville is a town that is now “growing out of control.” Presumably, that’s because people are like Bentley and would far rather live in a functional southern town than a higher-class but far more expensive and dangerous city in California like Los Angeles. Speaking on the city’s growth and how the times are changing, he said: “Coming back to Nashville, it was like I had to either lean in or move out. So now, I just lean into it. The city’s crazy. It’s growing out of control, and I could sit here and complain about it, or I can just lean into it and embrace some of the cool things that are happening.”
Continuing, he added that he’s managed to stay the same as a person and singer even as the times are changing like the town of Nashville, saying, “I’ve tried to change and grow and get better at what I’m doing, but at the end of the day, I’m still the same guy I’ve always been, making music that feels good to me. I’ve got nothing to lose.”
In not wanting to move to California and rather stay in a state like Tennessee, Bentley is joined by numerous other celebrities that have ditched California for red states, such as Joe Rogan and the entirety of the Daily Wire, and the thousands of ordinary Americans that had enough and pulled up stakes to leave the formerly Golden State.
Featured image credit: By MC3 Damian Berg – http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imageRetrieve.action?guid=f97634aabdc1aa526fc4e2b25816f05ed11aeb17&t=2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26099782
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