Looks like Dierk Bentley is cooking up something special in the studio.
Specifically, the country music star is taking a swing at a classic song from the late great Tom Petty. Bentley posted this short clip to his social media accounts to showcase a small portion of his cover of “American Girl.”
As a fan of both Tom Petty and Dierks Bentley, I’ve got to say that this is the cover song I had no idea I needed. Petty’s catalogue can often be intimidating to cover (maybe other than “Free Fallin'”), but Dierks looked quite comfortable belting out the words to the Tom Petty classic.
Released in 1976, “American Girl” was the second single from their debut Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album, and while it never had a ton of radio success at the time, it still went on to be one of the band’s most iconic hits.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear much of Bentley’s rendition in the footage. The portion we do get to hear though demonstrated the country star’s strong vocals, and also hints that Dierks might be subtly changing up the pace of the Tom Petty song just a bit.
Check it out:
That “American Girl” hashtag is nice Dierks, but you’re really not going to let us know when this cover song is coming out?
I guess we’ll just have to wait around until we hear more from Bentley about his Tom Petty cover. He better not keep fans waiting long though, considering how excited everyone was in the comments below the clip:
“Already a big fan of the original by Tom. Now Dierks covering it?”
“Oh man! This is sick.”
“I couldn’t think of a better performer to cover this song.”
“Wow! Love this and your voice is amazing for this song.”
“My favorite artist singing my favorite Tom Petty song!”
And here’s to hoping that the Hot Country Knights are somehow involved…
In the meantime, here’s the original:
