Dierks Bentley Shares Advice From His Dad: ‘Look Sharp, Be Sharp’

Father's Day is always a good opportunity to celebrate and thank our dads and the other father figures who have been an influence in our lives. As the father of three adorable kids, Dierks Bentley knows a thing or two about being a dad -- but he also received some great advice that's helped him as both an artist and a father from his own dad, Leon.

“Look sharp, be sharp,” Bentley recalls his dad telling him.

Of course, one of the sharpest men in country music is George Strait, and Leon Bentley loved the King of Country. So when his son and Strait shared the cover of Country Weekly, you would have thought that poppa Bentley would have been elated ... but Dierks Bentley recalls otherwise.

"George is wearing this great starched shirt, jeans with the lines down 'em, and I’m wearing a Randy Rogers T-shirt, hair’s all crazy and scruffy," the "Riser" singer told The Boot and other media at a recent event. "And that was not 'look sharp, be sharp.' He did not like that!

"He was always telling me to tuck my shirt in, and I was like, 'Dad, you just don’t understand,'" Bentley adds, "and funnily, now I do actually tuck my shirt in more than I used to back then, and my hair’s shorter."

There's no doubt that Leon Bentley would have loved seeing his son follow through on his "look sharp, be sharp" advice. And to see him still thriving in country music? The singer agrees that his dad would love it, adding that he would have been over the moon about the 2015 Sounds of Summer Tour.

Leon Bentley passed away three years ago, on June 1, 2012, before his son could have him sign his favorite acoustic guitar, which features the autographs of artists including Merle Haggard, Strait, the late George Jones and Garth Brooks.

“I wish I had my dad right there, his autograph,” Dierks Bentley says, pointing at the guitar. “That would make this thing perfect.”

As with many, Leon Bentley's death came far too soon for his country singer son -- and Dierks Bentley says that he still has a lot of questions for his dad, especially regarding how to raise a family.

"The funny thing, if I could meet anybody in time, it would be meeting my dad right now at the same age I am," Bentley says. "If we could go back in time and go to a bar and have a few drinks together, and I could ask him what it’s like to have two to three kids and how’s he’s coping, dealing with it -- that would be a really cool thing. Your list of questions goes up as the number of children do. So I have many questions.

"I understand a lot more now too," Bentley adds -- especially why his dad often had a beer on hand in the evenings, after a long day. "My dad loved beer, and it does help kind of take the edge of at the end of the day. I understand [laughs]."

Bentley is currently out on his 2015 Sounds of Summer Tour, along with opening acts Kip Moore, Maddie & Tae and Canaan Smith.

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