Dierks Bentley’s ‘Home’ Is in the Chart’s Penthouse

He's been to the No. 1 spot on the country charts many times before and now Dierks Bentley is back 'Home' with his latest single. The title track from his chart-topping album of the same name climbs to No. 1 this week, marking the singer-songwriter's ninth hit to reach the pinnacle.

Yet, even though he's been a bit like the Engerizer bunny -- he wrote about 70 songs just last year -- a dead battery nearly derailed his opportunity to participate in the writing of what is quickly becoming something of a modern American anthem. Meeting up with co-writers Brett Beavers and Dan Wilson for a scheduled two-day session, Dierks figured the trio would spend the first day just talking and getting to know more about each other -- hoping inspiration would soon strike. But fate intervened.

"I came into that writing meeting with nothing," says the Arizona native. "I was kind of out of ideas. It's hard to write that much throughout an entire year and listen to that many songs. [So] we were hanging out for about an hour, getting to know each other, and my wife called, battery's dead. Typical -- that car of hers. I went over and jumped her car, came back over, and Brett and Dan had started this melody, and I thought it was beautiful. Dan had said something about America. He kept thinking, 'This song feels like America.' And I was like, 'Aw man, writing a patriotic song is so difficult. Let's not do that. Those songs are too hard to write.'"

Brett said something about 'Home,' and then I think I said something like, 'the place we all call home.' Maybe we could write a song about America that's not overly in-your-face about it ... something that everyone could grab a hold of and feel inspired by."

With the country in the grips of a recession at the time, Dierks noted that the country's political landscape was "as bad as it's ever been, with, basically, Washington D.C. being turned into a football game between two sides and not caring about the fans, the voters, the public at all, just their own internal thing going on there."

And as the 2012 election season cranks into high gear, Dierks realizes that the song could -- and should -- resonate with voters of both parties. President Obama, a longtime Dierks fan, even placed the tune on his personal Spotify campaign playlist.

"I hate to put any barriers on a song," Dierks tells The Boot. "The song was really written in the spirit of hopefully bringing people together who are going through really hard times right now, to think about what we've accomplished in the past and what we can do together in the future. The song is universal, so I would hate to ever see it closed off to half the population. But if people want to use it, they can use it. As a songwriter, the more people who can hear your song, it's exciting. And I think it's a song that would be hard to skew it to one side or another."

Watch Dierks Bentley's Video for 'Home'