Country singer Dierks Bentley [ tickets ] is a true roadhorse. Living in Nashville and traveling about 300 days a year, Bentley rarely gets to see his Arizona-based parents and family.

"I was actually in Phoenix for Father's Day," Bentley told LiveDaily. "We're on the road a lot. We don't get out there too often."

However, Bentley manages to keep his sanity on the road, thanks to his love of music and longtime band members.

"It's a really unique opportunity to get a chance to play music for a living. We really enjoy that. So we try to make the most of all the shows," he said.

"We try to get a workout every day. That's a big thing. To clear your head, get the sweat on and get all the beer out from the night before so you can make room for more beer. We never walk through our shows. We always give it everything we've got. The biggest thing is being surrounded by good people. The guys in the band are my best friends. They are great guys. We spend a lot of time together. They keep me sane. They keep me grounded."

Bentley is touring in support of his latest album, "Long Trip Alone," as well as his debut live DVD, "Live and Loud at the Fillmore." He took a break from his rigorous schedule to talk to LiveDaily about the album, his songwriting process and being the first country act to play Bonnaroo.

LiveDaily: During your tour, do you mix up your live shows to keep them fresh?

Dierks Bentley: I try to in little ways. I try to remember that we're playing for a new audience every day. I want to make sure I put the best show out there every day for the people who paid money to see us. We try to do little things to keep it fresh for us, but not in a way that would affect the show. We definitely keep the door open for spontaneity. You never know what may happen.

How do you feel that the album "Long Trip Alone" fits into your catalog?

I think it's the freshest. I think it's the sound I've been trying to get. I think, for the single itself ["Long Trip Alone"], it's taken me to a new level, a new spot and I'm really proud of that song. We'll build from that sound into the next album, I guess. That, and there's a song called "Trying to Stop You Leaving," which I think will become a nice building block for the next album, too.

You said that that's going to open doors for the next record. How so?

I always try to find one song and take that song to the next album. "Settle for a Slowdown" [from 2005's "Modern Day Drifter"] is still one of my favorite songs. I really think that song inspired the third album. [For] this album, [the songs] "Long Trip Alone" and "Trying to Stop You Leaving," I think those will be building blocks for the next album. But I still have a ways to go before I get there. I'm still really enjoying just playing songs off this album and promoting this record.

Why do you think that "Trying to Stop You Leaving" will lead the way to the next record? Were you successful in finding the sound you liked?

I love the production on it. The production feels very emotionally charged, as was the songwriting itself … it's just a fun song to play at night. I just love the content, the emotion. … Maybe it's just the emotions of the writing, as well as the production. I love that, just really getting in there and feeling that.

You married about two years ago. How do you feel that married life has influenced your music.

Greatly. I guess the love songs take on a little bit deeper meaning. It's not just a "love you here now in the moment." It's more of a long-term, maybe more of a spiritual, I guess, side to writing a love song now. There's more people involved than just you and your wife. It's a spiritual vow. I think it makes for better love songs. I think it makes them more universal. I try to write songs that are honest reflections of my life, and I think a lot of people out there can relate to the songs that I have based on my marriage.

I guess it would make the love songs a little more special.

Yeah. It's fun writing. As a songwriter, you want to keep growing. Certainly, to do that and to write honestly about life, you have to be dug in and experiencing it in a real sense. I feel like that's a nice offshoot of being married. That's what life's about. As a total sidebar, it's a helpful place to write from. It makes me feel like I'm engaged in the world around me--not just looking at it, but being involved in it.

In your bio, it says that you took a lot of chances with "Soon as You Can." What kind of chances did you take?

I love that song. Gosh. It's one of my favorite songs on my record. I kind of write from a first-person standpoint. I was writing about more about [my wife] Cassidy. I think that one of the [co-writers] was writing about his personal experience with his wife. When you love somebody, you want to be next to them as soon as you can. You kind of throw caution out the window and let your heart make decisions. That's kind of what that song's about. She took more chances than I did. She was the one moving up to Nashville.

Did you feel like you had more freedom on this album?

I've had as much freedom as I wanted from day one. I have a great record label that's always allowed me to do whatever I could possibly do. From the first record to this one, I think you're hearing a natural progression of my influences--as a singer, songwriter and person. There's a growth pattern on the album that I love. But I've never had to sacrifice anything for the record label.

Did you record "Long Trip Alone" any differently than your previous efforts?

I really kept the same formula as far as my producer, engineer and a lot of the guys who play on the record.

Did you try new instruments on "Long Trip Alone"?

I probably used less instruments on this record, and tried to use the ones I liked more. I had a more pronounced use of those instruments--a lot of steel guitar, a lot of electric guitar. The biggest thing was how to take the live energy of the show and pump it into the album somehow. I think we were pretty successful doing it on this album.

Why is that?

It takes time, as the live show develops and it continues to really become what it is--which I think is one of the best live shows of anyone in this genre of music. It's something you can't do right away. You start playing the bigger stages, and it takes awhile to really feel them out and how to connect with those bigger audiences. I think I finally found that. It's a real sincere connection every night on stage. I just had a little more time to work on an album and find a way to inject that. They take on totally different shapes once you go out and actually start singing in front of a crowd. I'm just trying to predict how that change is going to be and find a way to get that into the album before it actually happens.

Do you road test your songs?

Some of them, yeah. I'm trying to do that more now that we have a little more time. We've been rockin' so hard here the last four-and-a-half years. We haven't had a lot of time to bring new material in just because we've been songwriting here on the road but we haven't really been working the songs up until we get in the studio.

So you write mostly when you get home?

I write stuff on the road, and then I'll finish them when I get home.

How was it to play Bonnaroo, as the only country act on the line up?

It was amazing. We had probably 6,000-plus people. Huge crowds. Really loud crowd. We're the first country band to ever play there--using the word "country" loosely. It's such an expansive term these days. The crowd was really receptive. We had guys my age who were hootin' and hollerin'. Girls on guys' shoulders with their tops off. We had young, old, just every type of person listening to us. It was an awesome reception. It was a career highlight, that's for sure.

It must have been an honor to play Bonnaroo.

It's cool. I think it speaks well to what we're trying to do. I love country music and I love being a country singer, but also I like taking my music to as large an audience as possible and just seeing where it can go. I like to be the first doing stuff with it. I feel like we have been the first to do a lot of cool stuff. That means a lot to me.

I've seen you play, and you present more of a rock show than a traditional country show.

I think we keep it country by the instrumentation we have, and hopefully by the songs I'm writing and the melodies. But when it gets on stage for the live show, I definitely try to inject the energy of a younger rock band vibe, as opposed to just going out there and holding the guitar and singing songs. I get involved. I get moved by the music. I just try to do what comes natural to me.