Dierks Bentley Is Glad He’s Not Hosting the 2019 ACM Awards

Dierks Bentley is among the stars who are in Las Vegas on Sunday (April 7) to attend the 2019 ACM Awards, and he's happy not to be hosting.

Bentley has hosted the awards show twice in the past alongside his good friend Luke Bryan, but in an interview leading up to the 2019 ACM Awards, he says he prefers having the luxury of taking in the awards as an observer, instead of the frantic pace of hosting.

"Not hosting is pretty great," he admits in the video above. "I mean, it was fun doing it. Two great years with Luke, it was wild and crazy. But it's also fun just to get to appreciate being there. I wasn't nominated for the Grammys this year, so I just watched it from home, and it was like, wow. I could really appreciate every performance and the collaborations and all the great female performances."

"I missed not being there, because that means I'm not nominated, which is probably a bad thing for business," he adds with a laugh. "But it was nice to be able to step back and enjoy it, and for me, the ACMs, just being there in the audience and no pressure, it's definitely more fun."

That doesn't mean Bentley will just be clapping from the audience in 2019. He's nominated for Male Artist of the Year, and he also scored nods for Album of the Year for The Mountain and Music Event of the Year for "Burning Man," his collaboration with Brothers Osborne. He is also slated to take the stage to perform in collaboration with Brandi Carlile in what is likely to be one of the standout moments of the broadcast.

Join Taste of Country for our first-ever ACM Awards Live Tailgate party, which begins at 7PM ET on YouTube on Sunday. Red carpet analysis, historical Top 5 ACM moments, interviews and predictions will all get you ready for the 2019 ACMs, which start at 8PM ET on CBS.

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