Forget about his 2003 hit, “My Last Name.” I can’t get past Dierks Bentley’s first name. It’s Frederick.
And I for as long as I have been interviewing Bentley — since the first time I covered one of the shows during his High Times and Hangovers tour in 2007 — I don’t think I was ever aware of the Frederick.
“It’s Frederick Dierks Bentley, but my whole family goes by their middle name — my sister, my brother,” Bentley tells Glamour magazine. “So from day one, I’ve always been called Dierks. My mom was really upset when I named my son (Knox) properly. I told her that his first name was actually going to be his first name! That’s how normal people do it, so I don’t know why she did it that way! People wonder if Dierks is a stage name.”
What if Bentley had chosen Fred as his stage name? Do you think things would’ve been different for him? Would he have set up a fred.com website? Would his fan club have been known as the FB Congress? And most importantly, would he never have been cursed with the chronic misspellings of his name?
In the interview, Bentley also talks about how supportive his wife Cassidy is, even when his female fans are crushing on him.
“People always ask her if she’s freaked out that her husband is on the road and girls are freaking out, but I’ve been doing this a long time and she knows who I am,” Bentley said, adding, “I just stay focused on the music and my band and putting out records that have an impact on people. Hey, if someone is crushing on me and it brings them out to the show, so be it!”
– Alison Bonaguro, CMT.com
