[1] Dietrich was born in Missouri but after his father's suicide, when he was 12,[2] he moved with his family to Walton County, Florida, at age 14.

He dropped out of school and worked construction and other jobs, then became a professional musician.

He has published more than ten books (some of them self-published), and has written columns for the Mobile Press Register, Tallahassee Democrat, and The Bitter Southerner.

[5] He writes a blog entry every day read by an estimated 125,000 people.

Don Noble, professor of American literature and critic who reviewed Whistling Dixie, praised the funny and quirky titles and the uplifting spirit of the 500-word pieces, though he noted that one should read only one a day, "any more gets cloying".