Dierks Bentley’s Road Hobby Brings Him To Stephen Colbert’s TV Special

Dierks Bentley is participating in the new CBS TV Special, Pickled. The show is hosted and produced by Stephen Colbert and will air Thursday (November 17th) at 9 pm E.T. on CBS and Paramount +. The two-hour special will feature 16 celebrities playing in a charity pickleball tournament. Proceeds will benefit Comic Relief U.S., which strives to end poverty in the U.S.

Dierks said that his band and crew started playing pickleball on the road to pass the time between soundcheck and the show. "We would just put some masking tape, duct tape, down on the parking lot behind the busses and start playing and got into it, a fun thing to do out there on the road."

Apparently, while Stephen Colbert was putting together this special, he reached out to Bentley to take part. Dierks told us, "Since then, I've had a lot of people reach out to me about starting a pickleball team or being part of pickleball specials, and one of the cool things is doing this Stephen Colbert TV special. It involved playing pickleball with a bunch of great people like Will Ferrell and Jimmie Allen." He added, "We were mic'd up, so I'm not sure what I said in the middle of a competitive sport. Hopefully, I didn't make a fool out of myself, but definitely, it's been a fun thing to do out there on the road."

The tournament will also feature Jimmie Allen, comedian/actor Will Ferrell, The Neighborhood's Max Greenfield, actor Luis Guzman, actor Daniel Dae Kim, boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, singer Kelly Rowland, Grace and Frankie's June Diane Raphael, actress Emma Watson (Harry Potter) and many others.

A few weeks ago, Bentley posted about the event on his Instagram, writing, "Game face. It's almost time to take on the competition for @comicreliefus. Get #PICKLED on November 17th on @cbstv."

Dierks Bentley celebrates his 44th birthday today (11/20). Not only is he a major country star, he just opened yet another of his clubs called Whiskey Row in Colorado and he's also his own pilot flying himself from show to show as he tours.