Dierks Bentley Talks Coronavirus Fallout: ‘I’m Just Worried About People’
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has Dierks Bentley concerned about people. The country star admits that he's been thinking a lot about others lately, and how the pandemic and related shutdowns are affecting everyone.
"I’m just worried about people," Bentley tells Rolling Stone. "The stress, the financial stress that some people must be going through — conversations around the dinner table worried about paying rent, mortgages and all that."
"I hope everyone is hanging in there," the singer adds, "and hopefully we’ll all ... We’re gonna come together and try to help everyone out with our country family. I just hope everyone’s hanging in there."
When bars in Nashville, including Bentley's own Whiskey Row, first closed down in mid-March, Bentley gave each of the bar's 90 hourly employees $1,000 to help during the shutdown. He also gave a performance for the April 5 ACM Presents: Our Country TV special from Colorado, where he was quarantining with his family.
Bentley, his wife Cassidy and their three kids have since returned to Nashville, but it's been "just the five of us" since the quarantine began.
"No one else has stepped into our house. But corona with kids is a whole other level," Bentley confesses. "And luckily my kids are at an age — 6, 9 and 11 — they’re at a pretty good age to be homebound. They’re self-sufficient but not overly missing their friends, as eighth graders and up probably would be and are."
And while Bentley is loving having some unexpected time home with his family, he also is "super conscious" of how this time isn't quite as wonderful for many.
"There’s a dark side to this stuff too, with kids who are being abused at home. It can go to so many places," he adds. "I just feel very blessed to be here with my family, and I know it won’t be like this forever, so we’re just making the most of the time together, getting outdoors and doing adventures when we can, just staying safe."
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