See Dierks Bentley’s Provocative ‘I’ll Be the Moon’ Video
“It never works out all nice and neat. It’s a little more mysterious than that,” says Dierks Bentley of his tried-and-true theory on love, something he explores through all its twists, turns and turmoil on his eighth studio album, Black. It’s a “relationship record,” he explains, but won’t go so far as to say it’s a concept album. Instead, Black was born of the more organic process of writing and gravitating toward 13 songs with one central theme of love — whether that be love lost, love found, love cherished or love that deserves a middle-finger flip.
After introducing the LP with “Somewhere on a Beach,” a lighthearted (yet vengeful) look at a relationship — along with its side-splitting video, the singer-songwriter is next revealing the album’s darker, more mysterious side. And he’s doing so via four new music videos that play out one edge-of-your-seat storyline.
Bentley and director Wes Edwards have created somewhat of a mini-movie that progresses from “I’ll Be the Moon” through the video components to three more Black songs — spreading out their premieres over the weeks leading up to the album’s release.
“You’re trying to make Cliff Notes to the album and give people a little idea of what it’s about,” Bentley explains of the video series. “So we created a little story with just four songs.”
All four videos will debut exclusively on Rolling Stone Country, with today’s setting the sexy scene for a love triangle. The clip for “I’ll Be the Moon,” an achingly passionate duet with Maren Morris, shows a woman bed-hopping between her boyfriend and a secret lover. She’s conflicted, while her lover is left wanting more and the boyfriend is left clueless. . . for now.
Whereas Bentley has done his fair share of commendable acting in his 13 illustrious years of music video making, he instead jumps behind the wheel of a car to simply sing “I’ll Be the Moon” in the new video, leaving the two male leads to professional actors.
“I can act . . . well, kind of. I’m comfortable in front of a camera. I mean, I just took all my clothes off for that ACM video,” Bentley says with a laugh, referencing a naked (ish) video promoting this weekend’s ACM Awards, which he’s co-hosting with Luke Bryan. “But I just thought it would be better for the actors to do their job on this one.”
We’ll reveal Part Two of this Black storyline on April 15th with “What the Hell Did I Say.” Dierks Bentley’s Black is out May 27th.