Hank Williams Jr. is always a positive influence.
You could even make an argument that his music inspired Dierks Bentley to eventually make his own whiskey – the smooth, 94-proof Row 94 that just released back in September. At a special event at Dierk’s Whiskey Row Broadway bar in Downtown Nashville, the country star took a moment to tell the story of how his bourbon whiskey came to be:
“I didn’t do it for the business side of it. I really just did it a lot like making an album. There’s a lot of country albums in this town too. Why bother making another country album? It’s something I feel passionate about. That I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
And there’s more to the why of things than meets the eye. Dierks revealed that the origin of his drinking days – which may or may not have been before legal age – helped play a role in him eventually crafting Row 94. And there just so happened to be a country music legend that had a critical role in… we’ll just say inspiring him:
“I started drinking at a young age – in my teens. When I first started listening to Hank William Jr., Hank drank Jim Beam, I said, ‘Well I love Hank, so I guess I’m gonna be drinking Jim Beam from now on.
Spent a lot of time looking at that bottle, but never really thought about creating it. I just thought about consuming it.”
@whiskeyriff Can thank Hank Williams Jr. 🥃@dierksbentley // whiskeyriff.com #whiskeyriff #dierksbentley #whiskey #nashville #hankwilliamsjr ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
Later on in the interview, Dierks was asked about the perfect songs to throw on while drinking his new whiskey. He went back to the well, so to speak, and basically said that any Hank Williams Jr. song will always go well with sipping on a good glass of Row 94.
And he couldn’t help but talk about his younger days again, when Hank Williams Jr. had a big impact on his life:
“Back in the day, when I was 17 or 18, it was ‘Country State of Mind,’ it was a lot of Hank songs. He sang about things that, as a kid that age, I connected with. I think he has a song called ‘Naked Women and Beer.’
When your 17, it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s keep it simple here.'”
@whiskeyriff BIG Hank Jr. guy. @dierksbentley // whiskeyriff.com #whiskeyriff #dierksbentley #whiskey #hankwilliamsjr ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
