Keith Urban
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urbanis a New Zealand-born Australian country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, TV show judge and record producer. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States the following year. He found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Nashville and charted two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCountry Singer
Date of Birth26 October 1967
CityWhangarei, New Zealand
CountryUnited States of America
There are certain songs that are sacred. People want to hear them just as they are in their head; they don't want you messing around with them. And then there are some other songs, if they've been around a long time in our set list, that I think we can take some creative liberties with.
I've always been a pretty private, quiet kind of person and so I haven't had to change my life really at all, I don't think.
I think there's just so many people in the world that don't feel understood, and when you hear a song and you go, 'Oh, that song understands me,' that's an amazing feeling. I get it when I listen to the radio... That's a beautiful part of music.
I think everybody has different priorities in their life. People live their lives differently. People become famous through all sorts of different reasons... some of it through art and some of it through just wanting to be famous. And I think how that all starts tends to reflect how you live your life daily.
It's not the case of turning in a bunch of songs and recording the next month. I think you're looking for songs all year long and you're writing all year long.
I think the industry is oblivious to the fact that most people listen to all kinds of stuff. I personally don't know of anyone who listens to only one genre of music. It's vanity because no one does.
I think it took me a while to convince Nashville that what I do is genuine and my heart's in the right place, and I love country music.
We just wanted to present a better tone for 'Better Life,' and I had been down to New Orleans and was struck by a combination of things -- how much has been done and how little has been done. We just wanted to bring a little more awareness back to the cause down there.
We go to Australia with LeAnn Rimes for a couple of weeks in October. We have a lot of shows between now and the end of the year.
You look at me and give me that 'come here baby' smile. And I know we can make it through anything.
My dad was a drummer on the weekends when he was young. Being a kid in the '50s, he got bitten by the rock 'n' roll bug like everyone else. He had a fascination with American culture and the American dream. He fell in love with the idealism.
I feel like I'm 15 and in my first garage band again, ... I don't know where that's coming from, but I love it. I find an even deeper exuberance in playing music and putting on a show. I'm just giddy about putting all this together and giving something to people that they haven't seen before.
For a long, long time I felt music was a trick for me. Because I had been playing guitar at such an early age, it felt like a magic trick -- I didn't really have a deep-seated appreciation for it. And I went through a period where I think I came very close to God taking it away from me. Fortunately, I got through it and suddenly went 'Oh my God, this is an amazing thing.' Music is a phenomenal thing and I saw it as a blessing and not as a trick anymore, and as soon as I recognized it for that, everything started coming together.
There are certain things you want to go do together, and you want your mate to be there. But mostly you just try and, you know, pick places where you shouldn't be going because it's going to be too crazy.