'Let's do it!': Dierks Bentley ready for ACM Awards co-hosting duties

Dierks Bentley is a newbie to live award-show hosting, but he's not too worried about handling the job.

A big reason is that he'll share the duties with pal Luke Bryan when they preside over the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, which CBS televises at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 3. A double nominee himself, Bentley also will perform on the show at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, as will Bryan (who's also up for two of the honors), Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, Thomas Rhett and — tied for the most nominations, with five each — Eric Church and Chris Stapleton.

Up for male vocalist and video (for the title track of his album “Riser”) of the year, the funny and friendly Bentley is happy to return to the ACM Awards, which named him top new artist in 2004. Succeeding Blake Shelton, Bryan's ACM hosting partner the past three years, Bentley calls Bryan “a good dude. I've known him a long time, we're good friends, and we have a lot of fun together.

“I've never had any aspirations of hosting a TV special,” maintains the maker of such hits as “What Was I Thinkin',” “Every Mile a Memory,” “Am I the Only One,” “Home,” “I Hold On” and “Drunk on a Plane.” “I'm pretty content just to play music and write songs and do the hobbies that keep me busy, but Luke asked me about this and I love Luke, so I thought, ‘Well, let's give it a try.' I also love the ACMs; it's a great award show with great people behind it. I don't know why I said ‘Yes,' but I'm looking forward to it.”

Bentley says he embraces the fact that his ACM stint will be “a challenge. I've been doing a lot, but this is something I haven't ever done before. I'm always looking for the next thing that makes you uncomfortable, and hosting an award show is one of those things, so ... let's do it!”

Though he knows he'll get support from the country community as audience members, Bentley reflects, “You kind of reach a point where you just don't care. I put all my time into making the best albums I can make and touring for the fans, so as far as getting worked up about the industry and worrying whether someone does or doesn't like me, or thinks I'm funny or doesn't think I'm funny, it doesn't really affect me anymore. For me personally, this is awesome. I get to do something different, do it with my friend Luke, and see if I can meet the challenge.”

The ACM Awards precede a spring and summer concert marathon for Bentley, whose tour — named for “Somewhere on a Beach,” the already released first single from his forthcoming album “Black” — will begin in Ireland, England and Scotland before its U.S. leg launches in mid-May. He'll play the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Tinley Park at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 21.

“There's so much going on right now, I wake up in the morning and have to be on my game,” Bentley says. “Trying to finish this record, then thinking about the ACMs and the European tour and the album coming out, it's a lot of planning. And a lot of trying to make the right moves so that I ultimately put out an album so that in 10 years, I'll be like, ‘Yeah. No regrets. That sums up where I was then.'”

As the hours lessen before the ACM Awards start, Bentley (who considers his male-vocalist nomination “huge”) is hoping to get some hosting tips from others, since he muses those haven't come from Bryan: “He gave me nothing. All he said was, ‘Have a few drinks.' I'll just need some classic help.”