Fresh off of the June 8 release of his ninth studio album, The Mountain, Dierks Bentley—and his mountain-man beard—stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform a new track, “Burning Man.”

Penned by Bobby Pinson and Luke Dick, “Burning Man” features Brothers Osborne on the studio cut, but for his Tonight Show appearance, Dierks had to rely on the backing support of his band—and awesome beard, which is something he says has been a work in progress.

“I had [a beard] last year for the [Predators] playoffs and at certain levels it would really start to annoy [my wife], and then I shaved it off,” says Dierks. “And then I went back out and grew it out again. And I found out now it took longer for it to annoy her, like I grew it out more before she really started noticing it. And where it had annoyed her last year, this year she’s like, ‘I don’t even notice it.’ All the guys out there listening, you just gotta break your significant other in in little phases. You know, you grow it out, you cut it down, you grow it back out again.”

Watch Dierks perform “Burning Man” on The Tonight Show.