With their acid-washed jeans and mullets, the Hot Country Knights aren't just nostalgic for the '90s era of country music. They are stuck in a bygone period.
The band, which is fronted by Doug Douglason, the onstage alter ego for real life country star Dierks Bentley, brings back memories (the good, bad and awkward) about the golden days of commercial country.
The Hot Country Knights have been a staple of Bentley's touring show for years, but during a break in recording and touring, Bentley produced a full album of parody songs called The K Is Silent that hearken back to a time when country stars wore American flag shirts and let their locks grow long in the back.
The fascination with that decade of country music history and its icons is at an all-time high. Billy Ray Cyrus of Achy Breaky Heart" fame earned two Grammys this year for being a guest singer on Lil Nas X's country trap hit Old Town Road," and contemporary artists like Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen are unabashedly influenced by artists from that era.
In an interview with The Associated Press while doing high kicks in jean shorts in Bentley's garage, Douglason talked about comparisons to The Tiger King and whether their music is too sexy for country radio.