Keith Urban (Full Episode) In Case You Missed It! Keith On His Childhood, First No. 1, Marriage, Rehab and Overcoming Addiction

In case you missed it, we wanted to give you this episode in it's entirety!

Bobby and Keith dive into where his love of music started and how he discovered country music in Australia. Keith explains how his dad got him into country music and how their relationship led to him wanting to pursue it as a career. Keith talks about his early days starting out, his biggest inspiration as an artist, why he strives to make his live show so BIG and he also breaks down the day he wrote “Somebody Like You”. Bobby talks to Keith about how he and his wife Nicole Kidman seem like a normal despite each being huge stars. Keith confirms and debunks facts that you may have read about him online. Keith also talks about going to rehab for his struggles with addiction. 

You can also watch on our YouTube channel!

Watch Keith Urban CHECK HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kfzvJKxAP4&t=1595s&ab_channel=BobbyCast

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, it's Mike d producer of the Bobby Cast,
and a lot of you guys have been asking, so
here it is the full, unedited version of our interview
with Keith Urban in its entirety, and in case you
missed it, it's all right here for you. And also,
if you want to watch the interview, it's up on
our YouTube channel. Just search Bobby Cast on YouTube. I've
also linked it in the episode description so you can

(00:20):
watch the Keith Urban interview and then click around and
watch some of the other interviews from this year. But
here it is Keith Urban and its entirety here on
the Bobby Cast alright, and with Keith Urban, which is
Caitlin sends her best my wife. She just said, Keiths
coming over. I said, yeah, she said, tell him, first
of all, thank you for the wedding gift you send.
It's the nicest sheets we've ever owned in our entire life.

(00:43):
You should stay in more often, you know. I She
got onto me a little bit because you probably don't
do this, but I still have two. At times I
have to spray tan yeah, okay, And I got into
the sheets and spray tan one and she reminded me
how nice of sheets they were, and then I should
never do that again. And then you reminded her how
much expensive tanning was and it didn't work. The tanning

(01:07):
does not really hold a candle to the she but
they weren't destroyed and they all came out wonderfully. But
she said, tell him thank you, And she had even asked,
and you tell me because we had written you and
your lovely wife and thank you card, but we thought
we would just mail it instead of handing it to you,
which would have been more awkward to hand it to
you in person, or just to get it in like

(01:28):
a normal in the mail both of mine. Yeah, and
you could have even not send it, but tell me
that you did what they counts. I said that to
to people, and I said, hey, what if I just
send people a message for a wedding gift like a
video message? Felt human and that, And I said, but
everybody just roasted me like it was the dumbest thing

(01:48):
they had ever heard, because they just loved the tradition
of the hand. If someone sent to me a thank
you card for something I expected thank you card for,
I don't feel like it means as much if I
get a thank you card for something I don't expect
to thank you. Absolutely, that's awesome, I hear you. Yeah,
it's it's a complicated etiquette, isn't it? Is this back home?

(02:09):
Is it so? Etiquette back in like Australia New Zealand
is a dumb American thing where we have this, you know?
Is this? Is this the thing there with after if
someone gets married. Back in New Zealand, I had to
learn the whole thing about thank you gods and because
I didn't grow up with any of that, and I
think my family was not that etiquette at all. Etiquette

(02:31):
they were not at all. I I had to learn
the hard way here that you're right thank you notes
to people. That was that was completely foreign to me.
I remember once you were kind enough to invite me
over to your place. It was a Christmas and we
were in Australia and you said, hey, you should come over,
and I was talking to you about music in Australia
New Zealand and country music in particular. I was like,

(02:53):
what is country music like here? And you you had
kind of expressed to me that country music there is
kind of am like it's a different kind of homebred
folksy country in Australia. That's some of the the American
version is getting over there, but it's hard to find
country music on the radio in Australia. Well, the struggle

(03:16):
for Australian country artists is there isn't the big mainstream
infrastructure that there is here in America. You know, here
we have FM country stations everywhere, satellite radio, you've got
multiple video platforms. This is even preceding YouTube, with CMT
and and g a C. None of that existed in Australia.

(03:36):
So there was a lot of country out us wanting
to make more mainstream sounding country music, but there wasn't
the platforms for it. And to some degree that's still
a struggle there. So how growing up there did you
attach yourself to the thought of country music and that
that's the kind of music you wanted to make, or
were you naturally just making it and it was the

(03:56):
most organic place for you to fit musically here? It well,
I mean Nashville was just the destination because why why
why was it the destination? It was written on the
back of all the records that my dad had, um
Don Williams mostly and Glenn Campbell, Charlie Pride, Merle Haggard.
All of those records all sat on the back of

(04:18):
them recorded Nashville, Tennessee. So as a kid, I'm like, oh,
that's where you go to make records period. I just
thought that's where you go if you want to make
a record. But how did your dad get so involved
in music from Nashville? Because not not at all was
from Nashville. You're talking about country music, like other than
Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline, you know, there's there weren't a
lot of I don't know if pop would be the
word or Nashville wasn't big unless it was country American.

(04:39):
How did your dad get involved in that scene? Musically? So,
in the fifties he was playing in a band. In
the fifties he was a drummer and he played in
band called the Ricochets in New Zealand and in the fifties.
Rock and roll happened in the mid fifties right, so
made its way down to New Zealand. My dad got
obsessed with rock and roll and consequently American these American cars.

(05:01):
We always had American cars growing up, which is crazy
in Australia. And he was just in love with America,
and he loved rock and roll in the fifties, all
through the sixties, and then in the late sixties when
rock and roll kind of went in a in a bigger,
kind of different direction than I mean, the origins of
rock and roll is really rockabilly, you know, there was

(05:23):
there was a country element in early rock and roll.
So when rock then became more rock as we knew
it through the sixties seventies, my dad went, that's kind
of a little too hard for me. And here's the connection.
There was a group called O Poso Sako Singers, which
was a folk group in the sixties, and one of
the members of that group was a guy called Donald Williams.

(05:45):
And then he broke away from that group, dropped that
Donald became domn Williams and went country, and my dad
just followed him. That was really it. And so you
growing up listening to that music, that was your music
in the house. Yeah, yeah, Well, and my mom loved
Neil Diamond Everly Brothers. My brother was into E l
O and Super Tramp and Eagles and Fleet with Mac
so that was old of fusion. How proficient was your

(06:07):
dad with a guitar? Terrible with guitar great with drums,
but terrible anguitar. So for you, was it drums at
first or were other people playing a guitar around you
and you're like, think that that's it for me? No,
they said that Mom and dad brought me a ukulele
when I was five, and I guess it's a toy,
I mean, and and my dad said I could strum

(06:29):
it in time with songs on the radio. Wasn't playing
any chords, but the rhythm was there, so um rhythm,
which I mean possibly from him, definitely. Yeah, And my
grandfather played piano, so all of my dad's brother's role musical, trumpet, piano, guitar, drums,
four brothers, so it was all musical. And and I
just took the guitar, I guess because of the ukulele.

(06:49):
Was he the dad that wanted you to follow in
his few footsteps of Hey, if I'm musical, I think
it's called that your musical, or like so many people
in the creative world, that's I've seen what a beast
this can be. Like I would like to push you
away from it, unless you push so hard back that
you want to get in it. Yeah, that that was it.
Definitely because I I heded, I wasn't very disciplined as

(07:09):
a kid. I don't know if you can relate to that, Bobby,
But were you disciplined as a kid, because as now, yes,
because of the addiction that my mom had and my
dad left, you know, because I was by myself with
my dad bailing out when I was six, my mom
being a drug addict her entire life. I was so

(07:30):
disciplined that I couldn't go down that path or I
was going to just go down the path and live
in that path. Um. So you know, even today, I've
never had a drink of alcohol because I feel the
addict in me with other things I do. So I
am extremely disciplined until i'm not, and then I'm off
the end and I have to find and I don't

(07:51):
know if you have to do this at times. Well,
I have to find my healthy addictions. And I don't
know if that's a if that's a safe thing to say,
but I need to be addicted to something, So I
have to find the healthiest thing for me to be
addicted to, because my natural gravity is to go to
something and and and invest myself all the way in it,
so much so that it is unhealthy. So I gotta
find the healthiest version of that, because it's just in

(08:15):
me intrinsically. Like I I yes, I am so disciplined
to a fault because I know I had one instance
where I really felt it and I do want to
get back to, you know, talking about your your parents.
But at one instance one now I was um, I
got jumped and got a gun to my head and

(08:36):
I had a bunch of like trauma in that way
where I got held at gun point. I had UM,
I have my house broken into. It was like a
lot of things happening when my career was just starting
to take off and I didn't take it seriously yet,
and I was having some some threats from the outside
and I couldn't sleep, and so my doctor was like, hey,
you should if you can't sleep and you're sick, you
should take sleeping pills. Took them, had trouble with them,
couldn't get off of them, and I was like, oh

(08:59):
my god, I can even staying up doing that side
of them. Well, yeah, I don't remember, I don't run,
I don't remember. And so I would take these sleeping
pills and I remember the day where I went, oh,
I'm stuck. I'm stuck. And it was the only time
because I remember my mom being because you couldn't sleep
without couldn't sleep, couldn't sleep without them. I felt like

(09:21):
they were tethered to me. Anywhere I went at any point,
I had to have them with me because if I
needed to sleep, that was the only way I could go.
And I remember thinking, oh, I'm I can't I can't
beat this right now, like this has got a hold
of me. And it was the only time that I
ever related to my mom because she had been in
rehabit and out and I always thought, why can't you
just beat it? But I just had a smidgen of it,

(09:44):
and I was like, oh God, this is it. And
So because of that and how I grew up, I
am extremely disciplined. So did to answer your easy question
about life and music? You know, I do have that
discipline in me from I gotta be or I'm gonna
go off. Yeah that makes sense and not be completely Yeah,
So I was disciplined as a child. You were not disciplined, No,

(10:08):
I wasn't. Um. I think just being an artist comes
with a sense of being able to create, and there's
so there's a sense of just freedom and liberation. Also
as the youngest, you know, I had an older brother,
and I think it's not uncommon for the youngest sibling
two potentially be a little more like, well, everyone else
takes care of everything. I'm fine, I'm just floating along.

(10:31):
So if your older brother played music, how come you
even get stuck with the bass. Yeah, he didn't play.
We started playing guitar at the exact same time. I
was six, he was eight, and he started on a
steel string acoustic and I started on one with nylon
strings and he he just couldn't hack it and gave
up pretty quick. And to your point about my dad,
I went into my dad one time and said these strengths,

(10:52):
these hate playing guitar, and my dad is all right,
but then don't do it. And I was like, ah,
that's not what I wanted. I wanted him to tell
me I have to do it and get into a fight.
So it's kind of reverse psychology that worked really well.
What was the relationship like with your dad and you
as you became twelve, fourteen, sixteen years old? My dad's

(11:13):
alcoholic was, um, he's not here anymore, um, but he
was alcoholic. His whole life and never just never dealt
with it. You know. So my brother and I classic
adult children of alcoholic raised and uh, I got the
same genetic disposition as my dad, and my brother didn't
have that. Really it doesn't have it. It's wild because

(11:35):
I feel it. I have it, and luckily I saw
it early. But it's crazy that you would have it
and your brother doesn't. Yeah, but then he has no
hair and I have hair, so it's a fair trade.
Did you feel like as you tried to achieve musically
you were doing it for you or you were doing
it somewhat to create a bond to your dad? Maybe

(11:58):
wasn't there because of other circumstances, probably both you both,
And you know, I think um in the song we
Have Wild Hearts that you know, there's a song about
it opens with Johnny Cash, you know, sort of man
in Black, because when I was five, dad, mom and
dad took us to see Johnny Cash, and I remember
so much about that concert. But the thing I think

(12:20):
that is subconsciously in me. I was really taken by
how my dad was staring at this guy on stage
and probably thinking how do I get my dad to
look at me like that? Right, isn't that wild? Yeah,
So I don't I don't know if I saw it.
It's hard to know, right was that that Did I
recognize in that person on stage with the guitar? Did

(12:41):
I recognize something that I was going to do or
something that I wanted to do, or something that I
should do? I don't know. It doesn't really matter in
the end. When did it start to be And I'm
not gonna say the word easy, I don't think that's
fair to you, But when did it start to be
that you had an understanding that you could actually create
and manipulate with that inst it Tuesday? This week? This week,

(13:03):
it's a great you've been missing, You've been missing a lot.
You've been doing pretty good up until Tuesday. You had
us all fold Was it? Was it fourteen fifteen? Was
it earlier than that where you're like, Okay, I can
actually do this at a higher level than like my
peers who are doing this. Uh. I don't know if
I've ever felt that way. No, because you know, in Australia,
because I've always been around people way better than me always,

(13:26):
and in Australia there's like the local guy playing in
the cover band because people go, who your influences? I'm
like the guy in the local cover band Barried Clough
and then Dallas Seldom and then Ridge Grant and all
these guys playing in cover bands. I'm twelve years old,
thirteen years old watching them going, I wish you could
play that good, and then at some point you play
that good, and so you're already looking to the next guy.

(13:47):
I wish you could play as good as him, and
you just your your influences, keep moving. Who was it
for you that was your favorite? Your first favorite artist
where you really clicked and you're like, that's my favorite
your own good question? Gosh, I don't know. For me.
I'll vamp a bit as you think about that so
you can have a good answer for me. You know,

(14:07):
it was it was John Mayer whenever he was starting,
because I felt someone writing the things that I was thinking,
and I never had had experienced that before. He's a
couple of years older than I am, but I was like, wow,
this guy one. I liked his tone, I liked the style,
but he was saying things. It was like a really
good comedian, you know how you go? Oh, I always
thought that I just didn't know what to say it
like that. It was the first time I've ever heard

(14:28):
that in song, and I thought, wow, he's he's kind
of speaking for me musically. Is the first time that
had ever happened. So he became my first ever like,
that's my favorite artist. There have been others that that
since I've done that, I'm a big Counting Crows guy too,
you know, Um, but John Mayor was it for me?
Now that I've given you a little time, who do

(14:49):
you think it is? Well, what I actually think about
is John Mellencamp is the is the guy that's coming
to mind. Um. The reason is I up playing list
country music, right, going to all these talent quests and
different competitions playing country music. But then I got to
be twelve fourteen. I left school at fifteen. I was

(15:11):
playing in a cover band at fifteen. So we're just
doing top forty and I'm playing in all the pubs
in Australia. And the pubs are rough places, you know,
just concrete floor, hose it out the end of the night,
rough crowd, no holes barred. If you suck, that will
let you know you suck. And I grew up playing
in that very rock environment and so I loved country,

(15:32):
I loved rock, I love Top forty. I'm like, what
the hell do I do? Who am I musically? And
then John put out Loans from Jubilee, which is an
album that had songs like paper and Fire. Check it out,
Cherry Bomb, Da YadA YadA, and it was rock but
it had like fiddle and it had accordion and everything.
So we went to see him in concert on that tour.

(15:54):
I was playing in a cover band. The band got tickets.
We went to see him and and was way up
in the nose bleeds in this arena. Him and the
band comes out and they play, and it was it
was so insanely great and it was rack country something
whatever the hell was going on. It was literally an epiphany.

(16:16):
And I saw what John was doing and I went, oh,
that's the answer. You don't think about labels. Just take
all the things you love, figure out how to put
them together and make it be like this. And I
was very lucky to meet John many many years later
and telling that story, and he said, it's so great
that that's what you took away from that concert, because
most people leave the concert and go, I'm going to
do that. I'm going to have fiddle in my bed

(16:38):
and you know, and just rip off Joe Mellencamp. But
what I took from it was just do your own thing,
take all the things you love and the original and
John Mellencamp, obviously a Middle America guy who had country
and rock roots at the same time, incorporated the mall.
How do you see that affecting your show that you
do now? Like, what are the surroundings that you've taken
from your life because you have a different kind of show? Yeah,

(16:59):
of really anyone? I mean, And I say that in
the most complimentary way. And I've told you this off
on microphone too, Like you do the best live show
I've ever seen you. I've seen a lot of live shows.
I'm jaded at this point too. I'm extremely jaded. That's compliment.
It is, Yeah, it is. I've seen it all and
I don't care to see anymore because it's just part
of the life we live right until. But when you're moved,

(17:20):
you're moved so hard when you're jaded, and to watch
you perform, I I leave and I'm like, god, dang,
I just I thought i'd seen it all. So because
of that, your it is so so what do you
take what are your influences that have created what is
your project? In the same way that he had taken
fiddle and he had taken you know, a different kind
of percussion. Yeah, um, and the different services of me

(17:43):
as I play guitar, So that becomes a strong point
of of the of what I do. I love guitar riffs,
I love catchy songs, you know, unapologetically energy too, and
energy yeah, and fiercely in the moment presence, absolutely really
giving a ship, like really really like this is the
last gig I'll ever play. Every gig is the last

(18:05):
gig you'll ever play. That's what I think I want
to talk about your shows is not only is it
musically wonderful and sonically just the greatest, but there's so
much energy there that doesn't feel forced energy. It feels
like pure energy. And there's a difference. Sometimes you go
out and you really don't, like, I'm gonna really work
for this show, but it doesn't feel like work. It
feels like that's who you are as an artist, Like

(18:26):
that's the most genuine version of you. And again, if
you if you haven't seen Keith's show, and honestly, this
wasn't leading up to the promo of your tour yet,
but your tickets are until today, which works in great
into this um and it's the it's the greatest live
show I think I've seen because and I don't know
why you keep going into the audience. You may not
not do that with COVID, now what I've just seen

(18:49):
you do it so many times, like stop, like I'm
worried for your own hell yeah, like people, Um, we
were talking to Jerry uh Flower Yeah, yeah, yeah, and
he was talking Jerry Flower. Jerry Clowers one of my
favorites too, by the way, Jerry Jerry Clowers only one
time and he is just a pistol. Yeah. So but

(19:10):
the other Jerry, who you were in the ranch with
and who is your musical leader, band director, I don't know.
He said that you guys were doing a private function
and you ran into the crowd and they were so
high they started biting you. Yeah it's like wait, what,
Like I knew that was going to happen, but it's
already happened. Like they pulled your shirt off and they

(19:33):
were biting you, and you kind of give off that door,
like you you accept that. So we try and feed
people before this same now and very passionate, very passionate.
Let me say this. The new American tour, The Speed
of Now World to fifty three shows between June sevent
and November five of two. There is a full list

(19:55):
of dates and tickets right now at keith Urban dot com.
Let's go back whenever you're playing in these cover bands,
what was the ceiling for you as far as for
your career when you're fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old? What's
the ceiling in your mind? How far you can get
in your career. I never thought of. I don't know,
it's so weird. I was never one of these kids

(20:17):
with a plan at all, none, just let's try and
get better. I was playing in this cover band that
I talked about so well Mally can't ya ya? Yeah?
And I wasn't the lead singer. Was it's top playing
and uh we well, well it was for a cover band.
We were doing a couple of thousand people on a
on a Sunday afternoon, which was a lot of people

(20:37):
to come and see this cover band. But it was
a really good band. What was your role in the
cover band guitar and lead singer? Uh? Well, we had
a lead singer that wasn't you, It wasn't me um.
And the only reason I joined this band was I
had a manager who was also managing this band. It's
a long story, but I had been in I've done jos,
I've done bands. I've always had my own thing, right.

(20:58):
It was always me was whatever. I was always doing
my thing. My manager thought, I really need some frontman experience,
how to handle a crowd, how to put a set
list together, how to put on a show, how to
just lead. And so he said, I've got this band.
I think you should join the band and watch this
front man because he's amazing and you'll learn so much.
So I was with that band for about a year
and he was right. I learned so much from that

(21:20):
lead singer. But but one of the things was I
wanted to do some original songs. We're doing all these covers,
and so I started writing a song and he loved it,
and the band learned it and he was going to
even sing it and it would be on the set list.
And I'll be looking at the guys in the band,
I'm like, here comes that song. He comes a song
we're gonna get to do a song and he would

(21:41):
bail on it every time. He'd be like, no, skip
that one, Let's do money money, and I'm like yeah.
And after a while of that, I just went and
I'm not this is going nowhere. What are you gonna
do with covers? I want to want to play original music.
So I left the band and the drummer and bass
play quit at the same time, came and joined me,

(22:07):
and so then what do you do? Is it a
new name band? Is it are you? It was just me?
It was just solo um. But then of course I
couldn't get any work playing original songs, and so we
resorted to being another cover band, but slipping in my
own songs in between the covers at least. And so
as you're doing your own music, are you in Australia
at this point? Yeah, that's all in Australia. Was the

(22:29):
plan to get to the States at some point? Yeah,
but I didn't know how when nothing knew nothing about that?
Then how did you? So nine my manager got some
tickets for us to come over to America, and we
came to Nashville and spent lips played down at the Shownees,
which was on to mon Brian and pitched my crappy

(22:49):
demo to all the labels, met with complete silence. Is
it now? It was met with complete silence because it's
your big, famous and successful or was it really met
with complete silence? Oh? No, it was terrible. But first
of all, it was a terrible demo, which, of course,
when you come from if you're not from here, you
think it's pretty pretty good, because it's pretty good from

(23:10):
where you come from, but it's pretty crap when you
get here compared to everything else. And I was just
out of out of step, out of place, out of step.
My music didn't fit at all. So what made you
think that you could stay and thrive? Because Nashville was
like sixteenth and sevent have and I got here and
I went, this is it? Is this it this is

(23:33):
the legendary iconic music row, Like that's it, My god,
this is this is fantastic. It's not New York City.
It's not like this is I'm at home. I love
it here, it's great, and I didn't want to leave.
And I also foolishly thought we'll get I'll get here
and I'll start writing songs and I'll record and boom,
we'll be often running in no time, and man, the

(23:53):
years just went by and by what were you doing?
And could you make money? Though? At the time, Like
if you're coming from Australia and you is it ining?
Were you able to make money? So I signed a
publishing deal with a company in Australia that had an
office in Nashville. It's very small, little wage to where
it's not even a wage. What is it like money
that you're gonna have to pay them back? Right? So
I'd come over for a couple of weeks on my own,

(24:16):
stay with crash of somebody at their house, gonna write
songs every day with whoever they've put me with. You
know that thing that we do here in Nashville professional songwriters.
Whenever the new kid in town is, they throw them
in with the pro songwriters and see if something happens.
Was that weird for you, by the way, because that
was the culture and you've been writing probably by yourself. Yeah,

(24:36):
but yeah, it was really difficult. I also was no
when you're good enough yet? And so I'm getting with
really great pro writers and I just I sucked. I
just had so much to learn that was excruciating. And
are you learning or are you overwhelmed. I think I
also frustrated the way in which I would write with
my drum machine and my bass or a banjo or something,

(24:59):
and always with a groove. Always. I would never sit
with a guitar in a legal pad in a windowless room.
So were you an early track guy? Because if yeah, definitely,
because I like I like them well, because I write
from the music out. The music is trying to tell
a story, and then I extrapolate the story from the music.
Will you write songs with melody first? Uh? Just straight melody?

(25:22):
Will you write a melody and that's what you have?
Then you create around the melody. Are you more prone
to do that when writing if you're starting from scratch
or an idea a lyric like where do you like
to start? If you get to choose, If I get
to choose, I like a groove. Beat doesn't have to
be fast, just any kind of beat that I can

(25:43):
then play along with, whether it's bass, guitar, guitar, piano, something, banjo,
whatever the matter, just something that you pick up and
just respond to. And then a melody comes, a melody
comes of some sort, and then you I think the
music has an emotion about it's trying to say something
thing I make somebody like you. You know. That song
started from flying out to l A meeting this guy

(26:06):
John Shanks, So I didn't know. Um, I was so
nervous to meet with some l A guy, you know,
and I'm like, what do I know? I've showed up
with my banjo and everything. And before I went to
the session, I went to this Irish pub and I
had a pint of guinness and it was like ten
in the morning and it was really good. Sad another
one and that was a really good so I had
like a third one. I get in my car, drive

(26:28):
over to the studio where he is, and by and
by then I walked in and I felt pretty pretty
just not bulletproof, but I felt very relaxed, very confident,
you know. And he had this little drum machine and
it was going, that's all it was doing. And I
pulled my banjo out of the case and dang, the dang,

(26:49):
the dawn and the dang and dang and dang, and
no idea why, just it just came out and we're like, oh,
it feels good. What do we do with that? You know?
It's and then there's and done nothing, some done down
and so does something. Gotta find some words and that's
that's it, and then you just the rest comes. You're

(27:10):
creating that vocal melody to without putting the words on it.
Yeah yeah, so blah blah blah. So that that that,
and then you'll go would you record that? You go
back over and go, okay, you know what's down here? Yeah?
Well A lot of times it Gibberish is actually trying
to say something like you listen to the type which
way had a tight then and it would be and
then you're like, oh, there's a never there was that

(27:34):
a new win something right there down never never known
sounds like it's like screw, it's all in there. I
think Mick Jagger calls at making foul movements great. So
as you're here and you're learning to write, when does
the ranch start to be a thing? Uh? Well? Um
this three piece band that I mentioned, I had drummer

(27:56):
bass playoff that I took from this cover band. I thought,
let's let's head over to Nashville and do some shows.
You know, all I can bring is bass play and drums.
I got no money, I can't afford anything. Um By
right around that time, I actually had built out a
five piece band. I signed a record deal in Australia,
did a did an album, put two more guys in

(28:17):
my band, keyboard and guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, guitar, and me,
and we're touring around playing these songs off my album.
So it was starting to happen in today. It was popping,
had a song on the radio and I was like,
here we go. It's great, you know, but all I
wanted to do is come to Nashville. I couldn't bring
the whole band, so I could bring bass and drums
at least I could bring and make a sound out

(28:37):
of it. My bass play Drama were the two guys
that didn't sing, so I had no harmony, no nothing.
So my bass player went back to Australia and I
found a singing bass player from Florida and we played
for a year or so, and then he went back
to Florida and we found Jerry who came in and
took over. So we were free piece because of no money.

(28:58):
It was not my preference. That just couldn't afford anymore players,
and that eventually became the ranch. What's interesting about that,
if we were playing back some of the Ranch stuff
with Jerry, and it feels like it was just ahead
of its time, like that, that music, and we were
listening to some demos and some old some old you know,
Ranch cuts. It feels like seven years later that probably hits.

(29:21):
Do you feel like it was a bit advanced musically
and that's why it didn't work at the time. Yeah,
it certainly didn't sound like anything on radio, and that
that's always the thing, you know, with the record we
made in just didn't sound like anything on the radio.
It was hell making that record because we were signed

(29:42):
to Warner Brothers and we went in with every quarter
pointed producer in town. Ah, every one of those situations
didn't work because what happens is we would be the
sound like us, which didn't sound like the radio, or
we would sound like something that could go on already
of it didn't sound like us, and we were just

(30:02):
in hell and just no matter what we did, we
just couldn't make it, couldn't make it work. Was there
someone that was betting on you? Though? As Keith Urban like, Okay,
the Ranch didn't work, but we still have faith in you.
And so many times in this town, once you don't
make it. People are like, well, you're just not gonna
make it. I see it all the time, like, well
you didn't make it, probably not for you. Was there
anyone that was like, hey, I know that didn't work

(30:23):
and maybe it was just you. Was there anyone that
was like, hey, you have that star, like, let's keep
going and try to figure out who Keith Urban is
instead of this three piece? I think that was me.
I mean I just had that burning belief. I know
wise because I was I'd grown up on oldest music.
I knew how to make the music, but I didn't
know how to make it with this band. This band

(30:45):
had a unique sound about it, and the band wasn't
I wasn't trying to get the band signed, you know.
The van wasn't in the plan originally it morphed into that.
So it was originally you. It was me. It was
me and my player drummer. We didn't have a name.
It was just my name, um. But we got messed
around with so much by the record company, and the

(31:06):
tipping point was over at that label at Warner Brothers
at the time. They just signed me, not the other
two guys, and we made the record and they said, oh,
we're gonna send you guys out, maybe to play some
of these songs. But actually we're not sending you guys out.
We're just going to put a house band together, and
I'm going to send out you Keith and about four
other artists on our label, and you guys will all

(31:27):
share the same band. And I went, no, I won't
you Like, what do you mean? I go, I'm not,
I'm not. I'm not playing with just I got a band,
take my band with me. And they're like, yeah, but
we didn't sign your band, and I go, no, I know,
but I mean, they're my band. It doesn't make sense
when I play with someone else. And uh. When we
got dropped from that label and went over to Capital,

(31:47):
I said, you have to sign everybody. And I'm I'm
going to get rid of my name. To the hell
with it, getting rid of my name. We're doing it,
you know. And I had so many people around me saying,
don't do that, don't don't drop your name and just
lose yourself in the band. But that's what I did.
When you became Keithnone rolled through some number one here
two thousand and one, your first number one. But for
the grace of God. That's here a little bit. It

(32:08):
is after the years of struggle on a label to
have a hit, did it feel like a relief or
did it feel like this is amazing because there's a difference.

(32:29):
Was it like, oh my god, thank you? Was like whoa,
that's what I'm talking about? It only above. It was
surreal to have a number one song in America was
just crazy. Remember that like it was yesterday. Really, oh
my god, twenty years ago, you still remember it like
that your first Yeah, I remember exactly the house I

(32:51):
was at, what I was doing, Who told me everything?
Like detail because it was too surreal. I was like
number one, like the number one most played on country
radio in America? Truly? Really did your life change after that?
After you had a number one? Since you could say it, um,
I felt like, okay, now we got a chance to

(33:12):
get some more music going. And the next single after that,
I think was Where the Black Top Bands, which is
weird because it peaked at I was looking at numbers.
It wasn't a number one, but that, to me is
one of the songs I think of when I think
of you and your catalog is Where the Black Top Ends.
It wasn't even number one, which shows you not all

(33:32):
number one or career songs, and not all career songs
or number one songs even in two thousand one two
two did that song feel big like a number one song?
Where the black Top ends. I can't remember that when
you can't remember now, I can't remember that. I mean
I remember making that a whole album with Matt Rawlings,
and it was the first time where I was in

(33:53):
a studio and having gone through all of the famous
producers and realizing none of it works. From me, I
don't know what I'm gonna do. Um. There was a
guy running Capital Records at the time called Pat Quigley,
and he was the president, and I used every proper
famous producer and none of it was working. And I
went into Patt and I said, can I just I

(34:15):
had just done a session with Matt Rowlings for somebody else.
The two of us were playing on it, and I
clicked with him and I really liked him a light,
and I said, could I just go and record some
songs with this guy? Because I think he can put
a good band together and we can just make a
record that sounds good. And he went, yeah, whatever it
was very much that case of like, go do whatever
you want to do. We're not that interest. You could

(34:36):
tell it was whatever it's going to. So we went
and cut up the Grace God and like four or
five songs, and I took him in and played for
him and he goes, that sounds good and just finished
the record out. It was no big deal. And we
handed in the record and it had It's a love
thing and I want to be her everything. All the
singles that came out, Grace God, Blacktop, all that stuff um,

(34:57):
and they put out Love It's a love Thing, and
I think I went to the number eighteen or something like, No,
it's okay, pretty good. They put out another song, I
want to Be Everything, and I got to top five
or close to it, and it wasn't It was okay.
Everything was okay. And then the label really focused on
me and they put out Grace of God and it
did that and I could feel everything changed after that.

(35:20):
Whenever somebody like You comes out two thousand two, there's
a little clip, do you remember this one is vivid
at your second number one? You do everything about it
recording it first time, I'd work with Dan half Um

(35:40):
working out at sound kitchen and Franklin and the putting them,
putting the band together, and the set, the whole session.
I remember it so vividly because it got magical. Does
a guy like Dan half challenge you? So? Uh? I
was going to do the next record on my own
um Golden Road, and I had already done six six

(36:01):
sides of that record, including who who were wanting me.
I put the band together, I chose the studio, I
chose the engineer. I put it all together. And then
someone said, you know, you should try and work with
Dan Huff and I went, no, I don't want to
work with him because and they went, well, he's a
guitar player. I mean, I'm so not going to work
with a guitar player who's gonna tell me what to play,
you know. I don't want that. I've been down this

(36:22):
road before. And they're like, we'll just give it a shot,
you know. And I met with Dan, and this is
a true story, and I was really a compliment to Dan.
I met with Dan. I said, Okay, I've got this
one song it's called Somebody Like You, that that'd be
a good one for us to start on. And I've
already been in the studio for two weeks with this band.
We'd cut half the record. It's already done, and Dan says, Okay,

(36:47):
this song feels great. Um, I think we should use
this drummer. And I got already got the drummer. Well,
I think we should use this space. But I got
the whole band, Dan, I got the whole band, all right, Well,
I like to work at this studio, I said, I'm
already at the studio. We're gonna be at sound kitchen. Okay, Well,
the engineer I like to use is when I already
got the engineer. His name is Justin Ebank, and he goes,
what do I do? When I go, you just show up.

(37:08):
That's all you're gonna do. Show up, because I want
to see what you do. I'm sick of these producers
that say they're a producer, but really they have great engineer,
great players, they don't do anything. I saw it again
and again and again, and I'm like, just show up.
What the hell can you possibly bring to this session?
I want to see? And he walked into that session.

(37:28):
I've been with this band for two weeks. He walks
in and I literally could feel all the musicianship go
up a whole of the level just with him being
in the room. He sat in the room, the band's
playing a bit of Somebody Like You, and he goes, hey, Chris,
just change that snare a little bit there. Okay, Yeah,
leave that base part out right there, and you play
that bit over there, and he I watched him arrange

(37:50):
this thing and the whole track is to elevate, and
I like, well, damn, this guy is the real deal.
He's so good. When did the town start to treat
you differently? Tuesday? Um? I was already getting support from
the town very early on. I think because of all

(38:10):
those writing sessions, you know, and when you write with
people where it gets out whether you can really sing,
really play, whether you know about country music, if you're
legit or just some poser really so, I think those
sort of guitar pool sessions of people's houses going to
the Bluebird, people knew I was for real. I was

(38:30):
watching some of your performance with her, I guess all
of it with for Tina Turner for the Rock and
Hall of Fame. Um, how did how do you do?
How do you get called in to do that? I
haven't seen any of that yet, do you haven't Um,
what do you mean you haven't seen it? You don't
watch Do you watch your stuff? Well? I haven't seen
that generally, will you go and watch your stuff? It depends.

(38:51):
Are you one of the guys that after a live
show you want to go on criticket? I probably should
do it more than I do. Yeah. Yeah, it's always
better when I in there and care. How how does
a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame invite come with
Tina for Tina Turner? Uh? Because Brian Adams couldn't make it,

(39:11):
and they just called me out and they go, would
you come and fill in for Brian? Day before the Yeah,
it was it was Thursday and Nick and I will
go into the Bahamas and my manager calls me and
he goes, hey, can you come fill in for Brian?
And bla bla blah blaha, And I'm like, you were
going to the Bahamas on Friday. He's like, you didn't
hear what I said? And I was like, no, I
heard you. We're heading off to the Bahamas and Nix

(39:34):
in the car and Nicks like, oh, I think we
should do that. That sounds fun. But in my think,
in my head, I'm like this sounds overwhelming. I've got
to learn a song in record time, a song I've
never played. It's not really my kind of song. It's
not my vocal range, it's not in my key. I'm
so in over my head, you know. I was terrified.
You still get terrified, Yeah, wild dear, Yeah do you well?

(39:59):
Did any thing musically would intimidate you? Yeah, to be
thrown into something that's not really my zone, especially in
that place. I'm like maybe standing up on stage in
front of my cartney and the food fighters and they're
all you know, I pictured them are like arms crossed,
like okay, what do you do? What's your thing? And
I'm like, well, it's not this, It's not this is

(40:19):
not it. So I could picture in my head when
it comes to collaborations, as far as your career is concerned,
what do you look back at and go, Man, that
one right there, we nailed it. You and who collaboration
and so many I mean John doing Crossroads at John
Maya to this day, I just loved that whole experience

(40:43):
with him playing. I learned a lot from him. Really,
you learn from him? Yeah? Yeah, what do you learn
from John mayer Um to make the song your own?
You know, you gotta remember I still came from cover
band land, which John did not, And so John approaches
it as a pure artist and makes the song on
his own because I remember saying him the first didn't

(41:03):
go like that, and he's like, yeah, but that's how
I'm gonna sing it right on? Of course. Yeah. Is
there a gamesmanship when you have two people that are
so again, I'll just talk about the instrument for a second,
so to be old, they're so proficient at their instrument.
Are you guys do you feel each other out at first?
Are you like, is he really as good as I've heard?
Or is it you know, because you've you've heard for yourself,

(41:25):
like on a record or on YouTube and not John specifically,
but anyone. You know when you kind of cross path
because I had room for squares and we played that
record to death on that too a us um so
as I was a fan right from the beginning. Um,
I love the conversation, the musical conversation that happens, and
the most important thing for me is spontaneity. It's just

(41:46):
you know, you can rehearse, yeah yeah, yeah, but being
in the moment and having that musical conversation with each other.
This is everything. You ever meet someone, you're like, man,
it's gonna be awesome, and you're like, man, that's not
really right really as good as that's hot or as
as you know, I don't want you to say. Some
people don't have a collaborative heart. That's what it is.
They don't have a collaborative heart for whatever reason. They

(42:06):
just don't um collaborate that kind of They have that
thing of well, this is what I do, so you
do your thing, I'll do my thing, and I'm like, well,
let's do our thing. That's what I'm here for. On
the opposite side of that, whoever you collaborated with it,
you're like, oh, I didn't expect it to be as
warm and as a just a friendly collaboration, but holy crap,

(42:27):
we're in We're in it and it's rocking. Pink. I
think was that when we did one too many? Why?
Why do you think you guys hit it off? Um?
I think our voices go together really well, and I
hope they would, but you never know until you hear it.
But she was just unbelievably um giving with that whole project,

(42:47):
you know, for a song that she didn't write to
be giving so much of her time and her effort
to the You know, we shot a video as well,
and then we shot footage which we can use in concerts,
so we have her projected on the screening concert. That's old,
time consuming and she was just amazing. Is it an
issue whenever you're with an artist like that, because they
also have their own music and their own singles and calendars,

(43:10):
and when they want to put out their own to
get pink on a song, do you go, Okay, well,
maybe we can release to the single, maybe not, depending
on what your schedule is, right, I mean? Is that something?
Is that an issue that you deal with other artists?
Is something you have to consider? Yeah, for sure, because
sometimes it's at the time he's not gonna work. You know. Yeah,
it's great, this single sounds really great, but we're not
going to release it at the right time. I was

(43:38):
reading on the internet that you bowl? Are you some
of the stuff I didn't know and could be crap.
Are you a bowler? Yeah? Are you a good bowler?
I'm okay? How do I not know that? We've never
talked about it or been bowling? True? But where did
where do you? Where do you bowl? I haven't bowled
in a long time. It's just one of those things
that I happened to be not bad at, sort of

(43:59):
out of the gate, just that I hand coordination that
guitar players have. You know your highest game? Is that
what you call it a game? Yeah? No, I don't know.
Um uh, you know to have an average? Yeah, it's
not grab me at three hundreds of perfect game right,
definitely could crack no, but definitely could crack two hundred.
You play pool, yeah, you go to that. I think

(44:21):
this mandatory when you're from Australia, you got to play pool?
Is that a thing? Very much like all the pubs
all had pool tables? A sign of a misspent youth.
We'll think about that. Though you're you're good at bowling,
you're good at pool. I mean, is that you're obviously
good at guitar? Which one made you good at which
because you do have the hand eye coordination there. It's right,

(44:43):
it's not like coincidence. Those are very hand eye coordinated.
Do you think being a good guitar player helps you
be a good bowler? I suck at base but basketball
I cannot get that thing in the hoop. So there
goes that theory you true or false? You were once
a road guitars for a bit for Brooks and Done. No,
never one of the many things on Wikipedia. It's not true.
I didn't think the bowling was tru I'll be honest

(45:03):
with you, I expect. So where did that story come from?
Do you know? Yeah, we toured with Brooks and Done
in two thousand and one and I came out and
played one song with them as a guitarist, and I
think that then from then on, yeah, I was like
a guy in the band. Well, what happened was we

(45:26):
were going to pull a prank on them, and they
had a guitar player in the band, Charlie. I'vegotten his
last name, Charlie. And he had his hat down, really
had wore hat worked down super low, had this like
leopard print shirt and everything. And during the tourist thinking
I could probably masqueraders. I could probably pretend to be
him and the boys wouldn't even know. And so during

(45:46):
one of the shows, Charlie slipped out the back while
he was playing. I already had the same clothes on,
slipped right out and reclaimed his spot on the stage
and played an entire song and in the middle of
the when the solo happened, Kicks goes, Charlie and I
ran down the front was shredding right in between kicks

(46:07):
and running, and it took a bait for them to
realize I wasn't, but they realize. So I think that
was where this room and got started. It's like a
Tuesday at your house, like and I asked that because
you and your wife exclusively are superstars. When you're together,
I feel like you're kind of normal. It's it's it's

(46:29):
a weird situation, like when I see you two, if
we're an event or something. I felt like as a couple,
you're quite approachable. Individually, it's different because I feel like
I know you and I could just come up to you.
But individually I would say you're superstar Keith Urban and
she is superstar Nicole Kidman. But together it's almost like

(46:51):
a normal husband and wife. And I've not seen that
vibe with any other couple. Usually it's different. It's like
they're much more uh, they're much less approachable together because
there's so much more power there. But it feels like
you're a normal, normal married couple at home. Is that true?
You'd be doing a house it's like super normal. I
saw her tell you once that she was gonna stop

(47:13):
and get some milk, and I was like, you do that?
What do you mean you're gonna get milk? Should it? Someone?
You flying that in and like flying the cow in
the rock and roll? And how how how do you
guys maintain what do you focus on to try to
have normalcy in a life that is abnormal? I mean,

(47:35):
look love, genuine love and and genuine gratitude for what
we get to do. Nick has it. I have it,
and I think it's we were both raised a similar
thing to Australia's. Really, Australia has a thing called a
tall poppy syndrome. Every as he knows about this, and
it's if you get too big in the in the South,
they'd say when you get above you raisin right, they

(47:56):
cut you down. You get cut down. The poppy seed
plan is another one that's all poppy gets. So that's it.
So it's the it's the toll poppy syndrome where you
you don't last very long. If you're strutting around with
this crazy ego. In Australia, you could cut down so fast,
so you just are always down to Earth. You read
the down to Earth, you're out of work. It's one
of the two, and it's it's put us in a

(48:18):
really good place to have a good life because of it.
What are you grateful for with her as a person?
How does she make you better? I'm sure? And I
asked this from a personal, just personal place, because I've
never been married. I've never I've never even told anyone
I hadn't either, right like I never there was no
I didn't know how to love until now because I
think you know, you talk about the trauma from your

(48:39):
I struggle with a lot of that trauma until now
and still am, but have found someone. But what is
it about her as a human that you appreciate so
much that brings a different side of you out that
hadn't been exposed yet? Um? She really loves, genuinely loves
and as real empathy, compassion, caring and love like I've

(49:02):
never never experienced before. Do you ever watch her act
and go, holy crap, that's so good or do you
see it all the time where you just expected to
be great? She's so good And I don't know anything
about acting. Sometimes people say ye, bad actor. I'm like,
I all look the same to me. However, I was
watching on Hulu with Nine Strangers the whole thing. She's

(49:25):
she's so good in that that you then go, okay,
that's good acting like and she is nailing these series.
Is if she's in a series, I'll watch it. It's
just to that point now where if your wife is
in a series, even if I don't know what it's about,
the history of poop, I'm going to I'm going to

(49:46):
watch it because she has showed that she's awesome in
these things. Do you do you talk about projects with her?
Does she talk about projects with you and them together
and like should we do this? Yeah? Yeah, because we
have to talk about scheduling and where it is and
as this gonna work? And then of course I'll that
I was reading scripts with her. You know, this is
the being the Riccardos, which is the Lucille Ball film
that's coming out. Aaron Sulkin wrote most amazing scripts, and

(50:09):
just getting to read these scripts is something that is
It's surreal you read with her sometimes, Yeah, do you
ever want to do that? Especially? No, I have zero
interest in acting, like none zero? Does she ever hear
a song of yours and go, yeah? She doesn't have to.
I can tell you can here's the thing that's more important,

(50:32):
and you may be able to relate to this. I
realized that whoever I play a song for, and I've
had you at the house and I've played you things before,
what how you react that song? Tells me a lot
about the song, But what tells me more is how
I feel planet for you. I've learned so much about
how I feel about playing somebody a song, whether it's
you or whether it's Nick. Because you know, she may

(50:53):
go I love that, and inside I'm thinking I did
until I played it, and I'm not feeling so good
about it now. So I want to figure out what's
going on? What is your relationship with singles, EPs, albums?
Because it's a new land out there, it's at tension,
spans are different. Sorry what exactly, but it is getting
that way right? Yeah? So how are you feeling these

(51:15):
days about track albums? Why are do you see you changing?
How you're just you know, doing Keith Urban distribution of music.
I I still like to think it comes down to quality,
the quality of something because people go, oh, people want shorter,
the shorter that, And I'm like, only because a lot
of what's out there. It's just not great. It's okay,

(51:36):
it's not great, and it's not great because it's having
to be churned out at such a fast right now,
because it's content content, content content quick. You have it
with your show, and you you're trying to maintain a
level of excellence with this often unrealistic demand for the
amount of it. You're trying to walk a line, how
can I give you the best most exactly? That's exactly it?

(51:57):
And I miss a lot because sometimes I do mo
and sometimes I do best, but I often don't get
it right at the same time. And I think we're
in this a lot in our society right now. The
speed of everything and the and the demand for more
and more and more and more quality takes time. Not always,
but most of the time it takes. It takes a beat.

(52:22):
Do you feel pressure from at this stage of your career,
labels managers like hey, let's go, we need another something
from you, or are you now like, guys, you'll get
it when you get it. Yeah, I've never felt that.
I've never felt I will say my record company Capital Record,
so I've been with a long time. I've never ever
felt anything but support for for what I do. They've

(52:43):
never given me like dragging the record out of my hand,
demanding this song with that song. Ever, they've been amazingly supportive.
Do you need a teleprompter ever? For lyrics? You've got
so many number one songs? Do you ever need a
reminder of words? Do you have to refresh or are
you just there? Yeah, refresh it if it's gonna be
an old song. But it's I have a sick memory

(53:05):
for lyrics of songs. It's crazy you bring up I
I brought it up. But we talked about it with
Ronnie don who I've oddly become friends with and we're
opposite in many ways, but we were. We were texting
last night like that's He's there's a big picture when
you walked into this guest house. He sent over to
the house with like a bowl or something that was
laying on the counter. But Ronnie has and I don't
think he would care if I shared this. He has

(53:26):
someone in his ear the whole time on a microphone
side stage telling him every lyric to every song. He's
had it for a long time. He's just like, I
don't want to forget and I don't have I don't
have a good memory, so they're like out in the country,
out in the country. I mean they're right in there, excellent,
I mean voice of an angel, but holy crap, we
can't remember word high fresh gig for the guy in

(53:47):
the ear and it's and it's a yeah, very much so.
But you have it all there for the most part. Boy,
he'd want to be on good terms of that guy,
wouldn't he. It's like Ron, Ronnie, don't you ron Burgundy
burg You could get Burgen San Diego real quick prompt there.
Let's talk about the new single that I do want

(54:07):
to get back to the tour. But the current single
is Wild Hearts. Let me play a little bit of
this for you. I kind of have a relationship with

(54:30):
every songwriter on this song, which is pretty cool. Eric
Passley is a dear friend of mine. Um Jen Wayne Same,
she's in now, she's in a group herself away June
there it is Brad Tercy from Old Dominion. How does
this room come together? Or was it a room that
came together? It didn't come together. I got sent this
song as a finished song two verses, chorus done, and uh,

(54:57):
I got pitched this song from Roxy King and I
heard it and I was like, mmmmm, I don't know,
it's just I like the chorus, don't really the rest
of us not pulling me in. And so I passed
on the song. And then about two weeks later, I
woke up one morning singing this chorus in my head
and I'm like, what is that? What's that Wildhart song?

(55:20):
It's really special chorus. I listened to the song again
and I went, Man, that chorus is so freaking good.
But the verses don't say anything to me. And so
I called the writers and I said would I said,
would you mind if I rewrote the verses just to
make it more personal, because it's such a personal song. It's,
you know, following your dreams, and like, well what about what?

(55:40):
You know? What was my dream journey from Australia to
hear And they sent me the track without anything in
the verses, and I just rewrote the verses. That's pretty cool.
One day will go yes, And I said to them,
I said, I'm a writer, so I get this first
of all, and but I'm not one of these guys.
It's going to be like I added the word the
right give me. I've never been that guy um, and

(56:04):
I said, you guys have written a top song. It's
top to bottom. It's finished, right. If you can pitch
it and someone wants to cut it as is, please
do that. I'm not asking to dismantle your song if
someone else wants to record it, but if you are okay,
If and I can rewrite these verses and they come
up the way I think they will, I'm definitely recording
this song. And God bless him, they let me do that.

(56:24):
The North American Tour The Speed of Now World War Two. Uh,
the tickets are on still now Keith urban dot com.
How long do you think you have another ten years
of doing these really high energy shows in you? I
don't even think about that. I mean just the next year,
the next show. I mean, I'm injured. My my whole
body is still injured from my nat g O show. Yeah. Beat.

(56:46):
So now I think about things in terms like could
I do another three seasons of that show? And I can't.
I now understand, I can't mash her rist her shoulder
heard Everything. Tour is not that show, but your tour.
I'm telling you things that you're mad. Your tour is
again is the most energetic show I have ever seen
from a superstar who doesn't have to be that energetic

(57:07):
because he's already a superstar. And I mean that the
most complimentary way. You could go out and just put
on a solid show and be Keith and people will
be blown away, but you don't. Your hair is on
fire for no other reason than you live that your
art is your hair being on fire during a show. Yeah, yeah, well,
I only know one volume to get out there and
play at there is I mean, if it's real passion

(57:29):
and the audience knows it, They're like, that's legit. That's
a guy surfing on the wave of not thinking about it,
but it's really happening and I can feel it. It's
it's true, it's in the moment. Do you lose yourself
in shows? Definitely? Yeah, It's it's a perfect balance of
being completely present and completely lost in the moment all simultaneously.
Do you ever Sometimes I'll drive and I'll get somewhere

(57:50):
and I'll be like, holy crap, I don't know how
I got here, Like subconscious has completely taken over, and
then I feel unsafe and I'm like, you're telling me
people are driving, And then I start thinking about other
idiots who are doing what I did, not thinking and
driving places. But does that ever happen in the show
where your three songs later and you're like, dear god,
how does that even get here? No? No? I mean
maybe no, not really, not even a moment. I was
thinking about a moment and a song. Um no, because

(58:14):
I don't know. I'm just super present, but I'm also thinking.
I'm taking a multi multiprocessing right, which I think you
do it extremely well on your show. You're listening to me,
you're checking that out, you're thinking about other things. You're
probably thinking about some other things you gotta do, and
it's all multi processing all at once, and you you

(58:34):
totally here as well. I feel like I'm completely present,
But I think I'm good at being present will while
also delegating my mind to do other things. The same
good way to put it, Yeah, what do you say
on that microphone when you walk over that nobody hears you?
Know the microphone? We're talking to it all right, do
you have one of those? What do you? What do
you when you walk back? Puts four songs in and

(58:56):
only your guys on stage can hear you. Because for
those that don't note. Some of my friends that have
them call them, Uh, we'll call it a b mike.
Right with the word rich. We like, we're talking to
the rich mike. If you're going to that microphone, what
are you saying in the middle of a show. Why
would it might be called that? But I have no idea,
but that's what That's the only thing I know it has. Right, Oh,
that's weird. I've never heard that expression. Oh you haven't. No,

(59:19):
I never heard that. Well I don't say it, but
that's crazy. So we stole it from Kenny Chesney when
I was on two with him and I saw he
had one, and I'm like, well, that's perfect because everyone's
got in ears and you can actually talk to everyone
going to get out over the top. You're not at
all not that mike. What do you say? Is it like,
hey guys, we're gonna switch songs or we're gonna play

(59:39):
in a different or on my throat? Her like what?
It could be something to my guitar, tech, could be
something to the monitor guy, could be something to the band.
It could be something to security. It could just be
really like you see something out there. For sure, security
has ears in and they can hear that, I know
that it's going to get to where it's got to
get to. If maybe not directly, someone will relay the message.
But yeah, if I feel like this just heavy handed

(01:00:01):
security at a place, not letting people have fun or
anything like that, make sure it gets taken care of. Definitely,
of all the things that you do. As we wrap
this up, one of my favorites is when you and
I haven't seen it in a while because you haven't
been on the road as normal no one has. Right
when you do those videos with the police escort behind

(01:00:22):
you and you're like, thank you guys, great, Like I
love the blue light video at the end of the show, Right,
that's funny so much so that there have been a
couple of times where you know, we did a we've
done a couple of shows. We did a festival and
I throw a festival in Texas and we had like
four or five thousand people and we had to get
out and I was like, Hey, I'm gonna get that
blue light like either because I gotta get that shot.

(01:00:43):
So you're inspiring me in ways you had no idea.
It's much better having in front of you than behind you.
Let me tell you I would agree with that. I've
spent way more years with the opposite. So this is nice, Mike.
Anything that I have missed that we need to address
with Keith before he leaves, I think that's everything. It's
a daylight savings time just about so it's getting darker
now and it feels like it's midnight. A little tired,
kind of run through it here. Anything you'd like to say, Read,

(01:01:05):
you're a massive Keith fan. Read is my video guy.
He's been looking for people looking forward to this, so read.
This is your one shot with Keith. Is there anything
take a deep breath alright that you'd like to ask Keith? Alright, Keith,
I don't know. All I'm thinking about is uh. When
I first started learning guitar, my dad got me your

(01:01:27):
Golden Road DVD that had all the music videos on it,
and I would stand in front of the TV and
I was trying to mimic and try to learn learn
the songs. And it was god awful. But I remember
that moment. And then I got the pleasure of going
to your show. I think it was in Dallas like
three no, maybe like two years ago, and my girlfriend

(01:01:48):
got me the tickets and and of course you're out
in the crowd running around and you came up to
us and I can just remember my my girlfriend just
going Keith, Keith, but that was probably me at but yeah,
so those are just the moments that came up to me.
But I was a huge fan. Man, Thank you so much.
How's the plane coming along? Oh it's it's good. Yeah

(01:02:11):
you're still playing, yeah, sir. Yeah, I love songwriting. Uh.
I don't do a lot of playing shows or anything,
but um I love to produce my music as well
and and write songs. So right, yes, sir, Yeah, there
we have an emotional emotional moment here. I'll mention this
before you go to I. As we were walking out
of our wedding, we played God Whispered your Name. The

(01:02:35):
writers or one of the writers saw me out. I
was getting some ice cream with Caitlin and he was like,
you guys played go when God Whispered your Name at
your wedding and I was like, first time I keeps
singing that song, I was like, that's it, Like I
felt that's that's one of those rare songs in my
life where I was like because when I heard it
the first time, I thought if I can ever have
this in my life. That's it. And then when I

(01:02:56):
met my wife, now I went, this is that song?
M like. It was the songwriting, it was the delivery,
it was the texture, all of those things together in
that song. I remember thinking, man, if I ever find
this because I heard a song before I knew her,
But when I met her and I was like, oh,
this is when God whispered your name. Wow. And it's

(01:03:18):
one of those few moments where a song that you're
super romantic punches you in the gut. Yeah, okay, maybe
you got you got married and you love that kind
of song and yeah yeah, Dan and Shid play at
winning yes and they The funny part about that was
my wife and Abby Smires are really close friends. Dan

(01:03:41):
and I have been buddies for a long time, and
I was like, hey, look you get because they're like,
whatever you want, we'll play. Like Dan was like, well
you didn't even ask us, Like we'll play whatever you want.
And I think they expected us to pick one of
their songs because they have a hundred love songs the best,
but I didn't. I picked the Beach Boys song. What
song did you pick? Forever? I don't know, and everyone.

(01:04:02):
I said, make you laugh, I talk forever. Um. Dennis
Wilson wrote it. I didn't know that song. Jesse and
the Rippers later did it on Full House. Dennis Wilson
wrote it and the drummer well, and they crushed it
and for and they did, so they put it on.
They give us the file. They recorded it as well
as a wedding gift ties and gave it to us.
It was awesome, amazing, And what was cool was even

(01:04:25):
Ronnie was like, hey, you don't want anything for your wedding,
Like I can't get you anything. What do you mean
to sing? And I was like, that's the greatest gift ever.
So he's saying, Neon Moon. It was awesome. Goodness is awesome.
How did he remember the words? I worried too. I said,
do we need to get that mike for you over
on the side. We didn't. He knew the words though
at the cell phone here the whole time. All right,

(01:04:45):
get tickets through on sale today. Keith Urban the Speed
of Now World to two. They're up. Go see him
this podcast. This show has heard in all kinds of countries,
so obviously North America, but all over the world. Um,
I don't know how you do it. I don't know
how you do it. It mains time is you. I
love what I do. I love what I get to do.
And truly it's a game. You know. People go, oh,

(01:05:05):
it's a gift every day. It really is. And I'll
finish with this because I think it's what is what
it's all about is I went like born with the
addictive gene. I went to three rehabs in the span
of three years. In the span of eight years, the
first three, second one was two thousand and three, and

(01:05:25):
my third one was two thousand and six. And it
took what it took for me to finally get sober um.
And that journey brought the deepest, deepest level of gratitude
for what I get to do that I don't know
if I ever would have gotten that gratitude level without
that journey. I think when you come close to losing

(01:05:46):
all of that and then it gets given back to
you through grace. In my case getting back to me,
I was like, I'm never going to take this for
granted ever again. Does it make you a more giving
person going? Because for me, I have found that growing
up a poverty kid and someone who's been through those
struggles with addiction. Secondary that affects me and how I

(01:06:09):
treat other people. Do you think you were two different
people before and after your final run, your your final
time and rehab. Very much? Yeah, and yes, I separate
the person from the addiction. You are known as one
of the nicer guys in town, just generally by people

(01:06:29):
like Keith urban Is the nicest guy. Were you known
early in your career? Is that guy? Were you always
just completely dialed into the human aspect of people, because
now you are and you're known for that. I like people,
and then I like collaborating. I love Yeah, I love people.
I've always loved people. You've always been a nice guy.
I've always I think I've always been um bridge builder.

(01:06:51):
I'm a bridge builder. I'm in entertaina. You know. I
think I was the that was the it was the
piece person. You know, if you have an identity in
your home. I was the bridge building between my brother
and my father are always trying to kill each other.
I was like, interesting, I'm gonna I'm gonna be the
one that keeps the peace here. And I think I've
carried that into my life. All right, go to a show,

(01:07:13):
Listen to the music. Keith Urban. Thank you always good
to talk. Good to talk to you too. There he
is Keith Urban.