Dierks Bentley loves country music — a lot. The 47-year-old has been a fan and student of country music for most of his life, determined to do his part to keep the genre thriving for years to come.

“There’s no calculation behind it for me,” Bentley shared with Everything Nash and other outlets during a virtual media event. “I just love that music. People ask about success in country music … You really just have to love it. It’s not a side thing. It’s not a hobby. It’s like an almost obsession with the music and where it came from. These characters and their stories, and the instrumentation of this whole American creation that is country music, and even the roots of where it came from before then, but was made here — it’s our greatest invention in my mind.”

Bentley not only enjoys country music — a lot — but he also enjoys the creators of country music, including not only artists, but songwriters and musicians as well.

“I love my artist friends, and I love songwriters, but musicians are always the coolest people in the room,” Bently explains. “Because to be a good musician, you have to learn all the people that came before you, and it humbles you. But it also makes you the most interesting person to be around, because you can really describe the music and the way it was played back in the day, and carry that into the future. So the guys in my band are all big lovers of country music, and bluegrass as well. I just love it. I love the history, the Opry history of 650 WSM. And if I’m able to wave the flag or turn someone on to it, that’s great.”

It was Hank Williams, Jr. and Waylon Jennings who were instrumental in Bentley becoming such a fan of country music in the beginning. But now, the father of three enjoys not only the legends, but the newer country music as well, much of it made by his close friends.

“You could stop making it right now, and there would be enough to go around for the rest of our lives,” Bentley says. “There’s so much great country music in our past. You could spend the rest of your time digging into the roots of this music. There’s so much good music that is still left to be explored. So I feel really lucky to have the slot that I have, the space I have where I can be friends with all of the younger kids coming up, like HARDY or Lainey Wilson. But also have friends like Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart, and be fans of that music as well.”

Bentley’s tenth album, Gravel & Gold, was just released. The record became the Grand Ole Opry member’s way of paying honor to all of his musical influences, including bluegrass and traditional country music, along with some of the more current sounds.

“I didn’t mean to do that, but my first album had some stuff that was different but also had some shuffles,” Bentley reflects. “It had on it a bluegrass song by Del McCoury, and this one ends with a Billy Strings bluegrass song. And so, it’s really a compilation of how I want to make an album. My tenth would be something like, this is me doing what I do, all the little things that I love about country music on one album.

“It’s not a greatest hits with a collection of my sound and my styles.” he adds. “Hopefully I’ve done the greatest I’ve done before. So that’s why the tenth ended up becoming a little bit of a theme for me as far as trying to make it a collection of all those styles and sounds.”

Gravel & Gold, which includes his Top 15 single, “Gold,” and his “Cowboy Boots” collaboration with Ashley McBryde, is available now at Dierks.com.