Considering all Bentley has been through lately, when he's says "fuller," he's not kidding. That's because Bentley's life over the past two years has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions, from the death of his father in 2012 and the birth of his first son late last year. Not to mention balancing family and his professional life as a touring musician.

"It's crazy with touring and family and your dad passing away and at the same time your son is born," he said. "As a songwriter, [you have to] keep that honesty and somehow put life into a three-minute-and-30-second song in different snippets throughout the whole album. That was the main challenge, and I feel like I was able to do that."

Bentley channeled all of this into Riser, his latest studio album, which hit stores last week (Feb. 25). It's easily his most personal release yet. Interestingly, the song that's perhaps the most personal on the album, "Damn These Dreams," almost didn't make the cut. Bentley explained that it wasn't until he sent the song to his band that convinced him otherwise.

"Almost all of them wrote back and said, 'That's the best song of the whole deal. That song is so personal and you have to put it on the record.' I'm so thankful we did. I've found the more personal that I write, the more universal the song tends to be for some reason. That song is strictly about me being on the road and being a musician and having a family. I had a lot of guys came up to me that travel for a living and said, 'I sat down and played this song for my daughter who's 14, and I had to travel a lot in her early years to explain what that push and pull is like.' A song can really take a life of its own after you put it out there."

Bono of U2 had a similar reaction to "Here On Earth," a song Bentley wrote after his father's death. Questioning the meaning of life and death, Bentley sings, "I read the words of the teacher but I still struggle with what it's all worth." While writing, he was thinking of his dad as well as school shootings where parents have to do the unthinkable: bury their children.

"No matter how much faith you have, for me there are questions that have to linger," he said. "The song doesn't have any resolution. It's a person going through something horrific, looking for answers, praying, hoping that they would have that faith to lead them past this particular moment in your life. What do you do in a situation like that? What does your faith do?"