Burning Man

Album: The Mountain (2018)
Charted: 45
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Burning Man is an event held each year in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada, which focuses on art and self-expression. This song tips its hat to the annual festival.

    I'm a little bit steady but still little bit rollin' stone
    I'm a little bit heaven but still a little bit flesh-and-bone
    Little found, little don't-know-where-I-am
    I'm a little bit holy water but still a little bit burning man
    Burning man


    While Bentley salutes the anything-goes Burning Man vibe, he acknowledges the need for balance. "I felt an immediate connection to the lyrics," he told People magazine. "The idea that we all are a little bit of everything… a little bit holy water and a little bit burning man… really resonated with me."
  • The song features Dierks Bentley's Mountain High Tour colleagues Brothers Osborne.

    "I'm a huge fan of those guys. They're friends. We play in a side band together, a '90s country cover band called the Hot Country Knights with a K for anyone who wants to look us up," said Bentley. "So, we're just pals, and it's like this song feels like something that they would sing, you know? It feels like if they'd got this one before I did, they probably would've cut it."

    He added: "It was so easy. I just called 'em up and sent the song and got a huge 'Yes' back from both of them right away. They came into the studio like two days later. It was just a great hang."
  • Dirks Bentley debuted the track during a live concert in Las Vegas at the end of 2017.
  • "Burning Man" was written by Bobby Pinson (Sugarland's "All I Want to Do," Toby Keith's "Made in America") and Luke Dick (Eric Church's "'Round Here Buzz," Kip Moore's "The Bull"). Bentley had held onto the track for a couple of years before he had the idea of getting the Brothers Osborne on the tune.

    "I just love that song. I could really relate to the lyrics," said the singer. "In the studio, Jedd Hughes put down this great guitar part, and I thought, 'Man, John would be really cool on that,' and then, obviously TJ has a, I love his singing. Great voice. I would've asked them to be on it regardless, I really would have, but the fact they're on tour with us just makes it all that sweeter."
  • Some of the lyrics were inspired by an actual trip to Burning Man that co-writer Luke Dick made with some friends.

    "That's what makes that group so appealing. You can have these conversations in the middle of the night on a desert dance floor talking to people about life, or the next morning making breakfast together and you haven't slept and you've got the Joshua trees all around you and these rocks," he told Taste of Country of his experience. "The connection that we have of feeling like walking contradictions, of needing to let loose and forget about the social trappings of houses and cars and mortgages and all of this. Connecting on the human level, of the woes and triumphs and beauty of being a human."
  • The song's music video was directed by frequent Bentley collaborator Wes Edwards and shot in the desert an hour outside of Palm Springs, California. Interspersed with the desert footage, are scenes from the singer's touring archives. "I wanted it to be about my own journey in music," Bentley said. "How many nights I've been on stage and the years I've put into this - who I am."
  • The video's desert scenes were shot near the Salton Sea, whose surface is 236.0 ft (71.9 m) below sea level. Bentley described the conditions as "super-hot," adding they lost four or five people from heat stroke during the shoot.

Comments: 1

  • Sleezy from San FranciscoHmm, the quote "you haven't slept and you've got the Joshua trees all around you and these rocks" is pretty odd considering there are no Joshua trees or rocks in the burning man festival area. there are mountains in the distance... but most refer to those as mountains.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn YankeesSongwriter Interviews

Revisit the awesome glory of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees: cheesily-acted videos, catchy guitar licks, long hair, and lyrics that are just plain relatable.

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.

Randy Newman

Randy NewmanSongwriting Legends

Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.