Another Honky Tonk Night on Broadway: Dierks Bentley’s busy developing his sitcom
This week, Dierks Bentley conquers the country chart, as “Burning Man” arrives at #1. But the singer behind the Whiskey Row chain of bars also has a new frontier ahead: primetime TV.
Dierks is executive-producing a sitcom set in a Nashville honky tonk, and it’s currently in development at Fox. So far, he says he’s happy with the way things are shaping up.
“Looking at the first script, it’s funny. You could see it being on TV,” he says. “It looks like a really funny show.”
“Nashville’s changed so much,” Dierks explains, “and everyone has a different idea of what Nashville is, and this [show]…it’s Nashville now, but also it plays a little bit off of the Nashville that exists in people’s minds.”
“You know, singers walking down the street with a guitar, and busking and moving here to get a dream,” he adds. “That still happens…But you don’t see it as much ‘cause the city’s gotten so big, but it still exists. So, this kind of examines that whole side of Nashville.”
At the center of the sitcom is a crusty proprietress with a heart of gold.
“The bar owner, she’s been there for a long time — seen ‘em all come, seen ‘em all go,” Dierks says. “Nothing fazes her. Kind of rough on the outside, but the inside is a teddy bear.”
“[There’s] all these characters in the bar,” he adds, “and obviously, there’s gonna be a live music component to it.”
“So, it felt like something that was the right time for me and I could get excited about and have the energy to get fully involved in.”
So far, we don’t know the time frame for bringing Dierks’ vision to TV.
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