My Day with Dierks

March 11, 9:54 AMNashville Venues ExaminerEmily Blue

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Dierks Bentley Video Shoot for the song "Sideways"

Have you ever heard of LinkedIn? It is one of the many social networking sites out there, this one seems to be more business related than say, MyFace or Spacebook. Anyway, they have a  groups feature available, so before I moved here to Nashville, I did a search on "Nashville" and "Music" and of course, a ton of stuff came up. I sifted through the masses and chose about 4 groups to join and receive a weekly digest email from them. From one of the aforementioned groups, I discovered an opportunity to participate in a Dierks Bentley video shoot for the song "Sideways". All I had to do was show up at the Opry Hotel in "casual upscale country attire" around noon, and be available until around ten o'clock that evening. No problem!

So I arrive a little early, around 11:30 and there is already a ballroom full of people doing some sort of country line dance (or so I thought). After signing my life away, I soon discover these dance steps are being taught by an assistant choreographer. Really basic stuff actually. Then after about 15 minutes of that, we wait.....

Well, after a little while I decide I want some coffee, so I start wandering around the hotel...and into Fuse...where the video is being shot. I see a table just inside the doors filled up with coffee and snacks. Jackpot! I waltz right in like I am supposed to be there (that is the key to doing anything) and grab a cup and some people tell me where the cream is and stuff, blah blah blah, I then turn the corner to check out what's going on...there are cameras and lights everywhere and it's really a pretty cool space. I'll have to go back and check it out during normal business hours. I stand there for a little bit, so I just go back to the room and wait. As soon as I got back, they were assembling to go down. Beautiful!

We head down and gather around the stage and I see him. Right there, less than 6 feet away from me. So much more handsome in person than his photos. How is this possible? I don't know. It just is. The thing is though, I'm not starstruck, or nervous, or in awe, or any of that. He is just a regular dude, super super nice, friendly, down to earth, personable, affable, and all the little girls around me are asking him questions and he just smiles and answers them.

I've been around famous people before and it just feels normal to me. Although, when I saw Prince in Atlanta, I was a bit short of breath, but I mean, it's PRINCE, he's a musical GENIUS. Oh yeah, and when I saw Slash for the first time, playing that beautiful vintage antique sunburst Gibson Les Paul less than 10 feet from me on stage (I was/am a HUGE GNR fan from back in the day circa 1988) I was in absolute AWE.

But I digress...back to the video shoot. So after many many many playbacks of the song and a slew of clapping and arm waving around, we break for lunch. All the girls bolt out of the room and head upstairs. I on the other hand, step on stage and introduce myself to Dierks. I stick out my hand to shake his and say, "Hello, my name is Blue", and he says, "Hello Blue, it's nice to meet you, my name is Dierks" (in my head, I was like, yeah no kidding) and I just smiled and then some bimbo shoved me out of the way and asked me to take a photo of her and him with her phone camera. Ok, she didn't really shove me out of the way, but it makes for a better story doesn't it? :)

The rest of the day was exhausting, I sat and watched for a little while, there were some AMAZING dancers flown in from LA that I enjoyed watching. At one point, I was hanging out watching the monitor of how the video was going to look on screen with the director and Dierks within exremely close proximity. Then one of the PA's told me I had to go stand somewhere else and watch. WHATEVER. I had already been over there for like 20 minutes and I am only 1 person and I wasn't bothering anyone. But, whatever, I knew I probably wasn't supposed to be there, but I was trying to find another opportune moment to speak to Dierks and ask him if I could work for his promotion team or if there was anything I could do to work for him, even for free, I JUST WANNA GO ON TOUR!!!

(((sigh)))

 All in all it was a great day. I got to meet Dierks, and I also met the super nice lady with a trumpet necklace to match my guitar necklace - maybe we should start a band? haha!

Words to live by: Pay attention, look around you, notice everything, be observant, and fake it til you make it.