If you ever see a plane flying high above you in the sky, there’s an outside chance that Dierks Bentley is piloting that very aircraft. The country music star joined the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to talk about his new album Broken Branches, some of his favorite songs on the track list, the Hot Country Knights and adding humor to his music, being friends with Cross Canadian Ragweed frontman Cody Canada, being a dad, hangover cures, sports and more. We also got to talk to Bentley about a passion of his that he has outside of country music: Being a pilot. It was a topic that the country music star was happy to talk about, and he revealed to us that his flying hobby that was first picked up just for fun now serves a very important purpose in the present day: “I fly a bunch. I started flying when I moved to Nashville and just wanted to get my pilot’s license. It took three years to get it just because of the time and money. Then once I got it, I didn’t really have a good reason to use it. So I gave it up for about 14 years, until (my daughter) Evalyn was born and I was trying to cut the corners off travel. Long story short, I got way back into it and I’ve been going hard ever since. And I just have a great relationship with Cessna for the last 10 years. I don’t own the plane that I fly, but I get to fly it a lot… I’m probably the only guy in town that’s flying his own band to and from shows. I usually fly to (the shows) and then my buddy Bucks flies it back because I’ve had a few drinks at that point. The FAA would frown upon that.” Yeah… don’t want to get “Drunk On A Plane.” Dierks went on to say that when he’s flying his guys to and from the shows, he’s typically piloting CJ-4 aircraft, which can travel over 400 knots, cruises at 45,000 feet (10,000 higher than commercial airlines) and can hold up to 8 people. He also pointed out that, thanks to his great relationship with Cessna, it’s cheaper for him to pilot the plane for his band than to hire someone else or for them all to fly commercial. And with how he talks about it, the band flying together sounds like a collectively awesome time no matter how you look at it: “It’s unbelievable. I’ll head out to the airport. All the guys in the band meet me there. Bucks has usually pre-flighted the plane – walked around it and checked it all out. I’ll get in, go to the front and sit left seat. We’ve already talked about the flight before I’ve gotten there. Then I fire it up. The guys are in the back usually playing cards, lot of laughter back there. It makes for better shows. I really believe that. Because they spend more time with their family. It’s hard being away from your kids. It’s hard being away from your wife. To be able to get that extra night at home… it just cuts the corners on travel. When you’re on the road, you’re just stoked to be there.” @whiskeyriff Did you know @dierksbentley has his pilot’s license? // Listen to the full podcast available on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube now. #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff #dierksbentley #pilot #countrymusic ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff As Bentley talks about being a pilot, you can tell he’s passionate about being high up in the sky. He even boasted that the CR-4 jet that he flies has the highest thrust to weight ratio than any business jet (translation: it’s got some juice). That being said, Dierks knows that he has to take his piloting very seriously, and told us that he goes down to Florida once a year for intensive training that prepares him to handle anything that might go wrong in the cockpit. And we couldn’t help but ask if he ever gets recognized through air traffic communication. As we imagined, those working comms often figure out that they are talking to a country-music-star-pilot, and there’s even a running joke when Dierks flies that ties in a classic song of his: “Oh yeah. Absolutely have. You have a squawk code. Every plane has a code that air traffic control uses to separate planes. Sometimes I’ll be up there and they’ll call the tail sign and say, ‘Change your squawk code to 5150.’ And that’s how I know that they know I’m on the flight plan or something. I own a caravan, which is a propeller plane. I fly that around a bunch and I usually get the squawk code 5150 for that.” For those that need a refresher, that squawk code happens to coincide with his hit song “5-1-5-0” that was included in his 2012 album Home. If there are any Flight Tracker nuts out there, that means to keep an eye out for an aircraft flying under the 5150 squawk code… the “most interesting man in country music” is likely piloting that plane. You can hear more from Dierks Bentley in the latest episode of Whiskey Riff Raff. Download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or click here. We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts. Cheers, y’all. Audio Video The post Dierks Bentley Personally Flies His Band To Their Gigs So They Can Spend More Time With Their Families first appeared on Whiskey Riff.