In all the years I’ve seen Dierks Bentley’s live shows, I never knew he did this before all the fans filled the space.

Bentley told the Calgary Herald newspaper in Canada that he likes to find the worst seat in the venue and sit there for a little while to get some perspective on the night ahead.

“I sit there and think, ‘OK, how can I sing to this person who will be sitting right here? How can make them feel the music? Feel the lyrics?' I’m very conscious about every seat in the house,” Bentley said.

Knowing how to reach way, way beyond the front row fans has made his show one of country music’s best. But so has the fact that Bentley has done his time on much smaller stages.

“You take all the years’ experiences of playing, going back to very beginning to the days playing for tips or playing for free beer, even before I played for tips. You take those experiences in the small places and how you connected to them and try to use the same experiences to connect to people in these arenas.

“I look how I started out, having to get drunk people’s attention and how to connect to people physically or through the music. I do the same thing now, whether it be high-fiving somebody or diving out into the crowd or just breaking down the wall with the words to my songs,” he said.