Don't get Dierks Bentley wrong: He loves meeting fans, signing autographs and talking shop. But he's definitely enjoying being a nobody out in Colorado, where he's riding out the novel coronavirus pandemic with his family.

"I like taking a vacation from me," Bentley shared during a recent virtual media roundtable. "I feel like, when I'm out west, nobody cares. Nobody cares!

"Which is great," he continues, "to have the ability to just go somewhere where you can be whoever you wanna be."

Out in the mountains, the country star is "just a regular guy who likes to ride bikes and drink a few beers at the end of the day," with a wife and three kids — two of whom are hosting a recurring radio show on a local community station — all living on "a regular street, with lots of neighbors, all packed together," he explains.

That person who set up outside the singer's house one recent morning? He was painting the Bentleys' 19th-century home, not trying to catch a glimpse of a Nashville celebrity.

"Usually, that's the tour bus driving by, trying to grab a picture of me in my underwear out in the front yard," Bentley jokes. Instead, he and the man had a friendly conversation.

Bentley, wife Cassidy and kids Evelyn, Jordan and Knox headed out west at the start of the pandemic, for a family trip — and then, they just kind of stayed there.

"I've wanted to move out there for a long time, so I kinda used it as an opportunity to sneak out there," says Bentley, who admits he had to use "every trick to coerce [my kids]" into leaving Nashville for the long haul.

"My kids love Nashville; they can't wait to come back," he adds. They're having fun in Colorado, he explains, but "they love the city, love their friends, obviously ... They're looking forward to coming back. This is their town."

Bentley's kept a low profile on social media — much to the chagrin of his team, he says — since leaving Nashville, but he has been doing some writing and recording. A new album isn't on the horizon yet, but in late October, he released a brand-new single, "Gone."

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