These days, Dierks Bentley says he counts his No. 1 hit song "Burning Man" among his most personally significant songs: "It feels like a 'me' song. I can't imagine my life without this song," he explained to The Boot and other outlets at a press event.

However, Bentley continues, that wasn't always necessarily the case. Though he liked the song the first time he heard it, it took time for him to grow into its subject matter.

"It was the ACMs, two years ago, when I first heard the song. I was on tour, and they'd sent it to me," the singer recalls. "I heard it, and I liked it. But, luckily for me, I'm always surrounded by a lot of great people who are able to see beyond the little world I put myself in, and see things that could be, or places that I could go."

Bentley's manager and wife both rallied behind "Burning Man" long before he decided to cut it. At the time, he was focused on touring and promoting his most recent record, and it took a little outside perspective to help him focus on the bigger picture.

"I liked it, but you know, I was really focused on the record I was on," Bentley goes on to say. "So it's been a journey with the song, from the very beginning. "

Additionally, the country star had help from executive producer Arturo Buenahora Jr., who'd worked on his first two albums as well as 2014's Riser. "What I like about working with Arturo is, he's really good at picking songs that aren't me now but could be me. Like, "Somewhere on a Beach" felt like a young person's song, but now it's a big part of who I am. Or "Riser." Or, now, "Burning Man" -- these [are] songs I can kinda grow into, and can become the center of who I am."

There's no one line in the song that stands out as particularly personally significant, Bentley adds, but rather the sentiment as a whole: "I'm [invested] in the road, and the guys, and this lifestyle out there," he notes, "and also very involved in my house and my kids and my family ... The yin and yang of that is so who I am -- so who everybody is -- but I really related it to me."

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