Dierks Bentley Calls Visiting St. Jude a ‘Divine Experience’

Dierks Bentley always brings his guitar with him when he visits the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Really, he says he should be bringing a guitar case full of tissues.

"You go to St. Jude and you bring a guitar thinking you’re gonna help raise some spirits and make people feel better," Bentley explains to Taste of Country, "and you end up walking out of there just crying because the kids are so much stronger than you are."

The singer echoes dozens of other artists who say St. Jude is a happy place. The doctors and staff strive to make sure the smallest details are attended to. Even the chef in the Kaye Kafe takes personalized orders when he can, occasionally turning them into new menu items. One former patient remembered how he'd inject gummy bears with electrolytes, so vitamins tasted like candy.

For Bentley, this fun place is also an inspirational place.

"They really have a way of making you see things in yourself that you didn’t see before," the star says. “It’s almost a divine experience, because they’re a lot closer to God than you are in a lot of ways.”

“No child should die in the dawn of life,” founder Danny Thomas once said. It's a motto the current staff at the hospital keep front and center, adding to it the new We Won't Stop promise. You'll see many red shirts with these words on them on social media below. Get your own by becoming a Partner in Hope today.