The Bobby Bones Show - Tuesday Post Show: BobbyCast with Keith Urban (02-15-22)

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

We didn’t have time for a post show today. But Bobby wanted to share this episode of his music podcast, The BobbyCast with you! 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 HEREhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kfzvJKxAP4&t=1595s&ab_channel=BobbyCast Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's designed to make yard care feel doable. Go to get sunday.com to get your free custom yard analysis. That's get sunday.com. We're back for a second voyage with the top shelf country cruise. Enjoy seven days of entertainment, including live performances from Riley Green, Chris Young, Lauren Elena, Randy Hauser, plus catch performances by Jackson Dean and Travis Denning.

The ultimate country music experience at sea, set sell March 2027 on the Celebrity Summit, departing from Tampa with stops in Key West, Bimini, and Cozumel. Open booking is finally here for Topshelf Country Cruise. So go to Topshelf Country Cruise.com now to book your cabin. Hey guys, Bobby here. So no post show today, but I do want to share with you a podcast that I did with Keith Urban is basically an hour long.

It's just Keith Urban and I talking. I love it. You know, when he comes on the radio show, we don't always have an hour, but he came over to my house. And this is an episode of the Bobbycast. So if you like this, go subscribe to the Bobbycast after this. You don't have to listen to every episode,

but so many upcoming artists, so many massive artists that just want time to talk. And that's what this was about. We talked about growing up in Australia, his relationship with his dad, how he started playing guitar, how he went to rehab, to overcome addiction,

so much more. And so the Bobbycast is all about just stretching out, having long conversations, more than we can do in 10 minutes, 12 minutes on the radio show. So, that being said, go subscribe to the Bobbycast, if you don't mind. Here's episode 327 of the Bobbycast with Keith Urban.

Hope you like it. All right, in with Keith Urban, which is Caitlin sends her best, my wife. She just said, Keith's coming over? I said, yeah, she said, tell him, first of all, thank you for the wedding gift. You sent us the nicest sheets we've ever owned in our entire life. Nice. You should stay in more often. You know, she got on to me a little bit because you probably don't do this, but I still have to at times.

I have to spray tan. Yeah. Okay. And I got into the sheets and spray tan once. Oh, right. And she reminded me how nice of sheets they were. Right. And that I should never do that again.

And then you reminded her how much expensive tanning was and it didn't work. The tanning does not really hold a candle to the destroyed. To the destroyed. Yes, 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 a 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 a normal in the mail? Either way.

Both are fine? Yeah. And you could have even not sent it but told me that you didn't. That's the thought that counts. I said that to people and I said, hey, what if I just send people a message for a wedding gift? Like a video message, a heartfelt message. Sure, absolutely. Human.

Yeah. And I'm good with that. And I said, but everybody just roasted me. Right. Like it was the dumbest thing they'd ever heard. Oh, wow. Because they just love the tradition of the hand. If someone sends me a thank you card for something I expect a thank you card for.

Yeah, yeah. I don't feel like it means as much. If I get a thank you card for something I don't expect a thank you card, that's awesome. I hear you. You know? Yeah, it's a complicated etiquette, isn't it? Is this back home? Is it so etiquettey back in like Australia, New Zealand?

Etiquity. It's a weird. This is a dumb American thing where we have this, you know, is this a thing there with If someone gets married back in New Zealand? I had to learn the whole thing about thank you cards because I didn't grow up with any of that. I think my family was not that etiquette at all. Etiquity, a term we've just...

No, they were not at all. I had to learn the hard way here that you write thank you notes to people. 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. You said, hey, you should come over. And I was talking to you about music in Australia, New Zealand

and country music in particular. And I was like, what is country music like here? And 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.

Some of the American version is getting over there, but it's hard to find country music on the radio in Australia. Well, the struggle 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. You've got satellite radio. You've got multiple video platforms. This is even preceding YouTube with CMT and GAC. None of that existed in Australia. So there was a lot of country artists 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 most organic place for you to fit musically here? Well, I mean, Nashville was just the destination. Why? Why was it the destination? It was written on the back of all the records that my dad had, Don Williams mostly, and Glenn Campbell, Charlie Pride, Merrill Haggard, all of those records, all.

said on the back of them recorded in 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 all was from Nashville. You're talking about country music, other than Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline. You know, 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 Americana.

But how did your dad get involved in that scene musically? So in the 50s, he was playing in a band in the 50s. He was a drummer. and he played a band called the ricochets in New Zealand and in the 50s rock and roll happened in the mid-50s right so made its way down to New Zealand my dad got obsessed with rock and roll and consequently American movies American cars we always had American cars grown up which is crazy in Australia and he was just in love with America

and he loved rock and roll in the 50s all through the 60s and then in the late 60s when rock and roll kind of went went in a bigger kind of different direction than, I mean, the origins of rock and roll is really rockabilly. You know, there was a country element in early rock and roll. So when rock then became more rock as we knew it through the 60s, my dad went, oh, that's kind of a little too hard for me. And here's the connection.

There was a group called a Pozo Seco singers, which was a folk group in the 60s. And one of the members of that group was a guy called Donald Williams. And then he broke away from that group, dropped the Donald, became Don 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 Ello and Super Tramp and Eagles and Fleet with Mac. So that was all the fusion. How proficient was your dad with a guitar? Oh, terrible with guitar. Great with drums, but terrible on guitar. So for you, was it drums at first? Or were other people playing a guitar around you?

And you're like, that's it for me. No, they said, mom and dad bought me a ukulele when I was five. And I guess it's a toy. And my dad said I could strum it in time with songs on the radio. I wasn't playing any chords, but the rhythm was there. Rhythm, which, I mean, possibly from him? Definitely. Yeah.

And my grandfather played piano. So all of my dad's brothers were all musical, trumpet, piano, guitar, drums. four brothers. So it was all musical. And I just took to guitar, I guess, because of the ukulele. Was he the dad that wanted you to follow in his footsteps of, hey, if I'm musical, I think it's cool that you're musical? Or, like so many people in the creative world, it'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 hated, I wasn't very disciplined as a kid. I don't know if you can relate to that, Bobby, but

Were you disciplined as a kid? Because... How you disciplined now, probably? 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 disciplined that I couldn't go down that path or I was going to just go down the path and live in that path. 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. Right.

So I'm extremely disciplined until I'm not, and then I'm off the end. And I have to find, and I don't know if you have to do this at times. Well, I have to find my healthy addiction, and I don't know if that's a safe thing to say. Sure. 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 invest myself all the way in it so much so that it is unhealthy, so I've got to find the healthiest version of that. because it's just in me. Intrinsically, like I, I, yes, I am so disciplined to a fault.

Right. 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 parents, but I had one instance when now I was, I got jumped and got a gun to my head. And I had a bunch of, like, trauma in that way where I got held a gunpoint. I had 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 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 my god well you're taking them and staying up enjoying that side of them well yeah I don't remember I don't remember I don't remember right yeah and so I would take these sleeping pills and I remember the day where I went oh I'm stuck I'm stuck. I'm stuck. Wow.

And it was the only time because I remember my mom being so bad. Because you couldn't sleep without them? Couldn't sleep without them. Right. Felt like they were tethered to me anywhere I went at any point. I had to have them with me because if I needed a sleep, that was the only way I could go. Right. And I remember thinking, oh, 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 rehab and out and I'd always thought, why can't you just beat it? But I just had a smidgen of it. Yeah. And I was like, oh, God, this is it. Yeah. And so because of that and how I grew up, I'm extremely disciplined.

Right. So to answer your easy question about life and music, you know, I do have that discipline in me from I got to be or I'm going to go off. Yeah. That makes sense. And not be completely. Yeah. So I was disciplined as a child. You were not disciplined.

No, I wasn't. I think just being an artist comes with a sense of being able to create. And 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 younger sibling to potentially be a little more like, well, everyone else takes care of everything. I'm fine, I'm just floating along. If your older brother played music, how come you didn't 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 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, I hate playing guitar.

And my dad goes, all right, well, then don't do it. And I was like, eh, it's not what I wanted. I wanted him to tell me I have to do it and get into a fight. So it was kind of reverse psychology that worked really well. What was the relationship like with your dad, you as you became 12, 14, 16 years old? My dad's alcoholic was. He's not here anymore.

But he was alcoholic his whole life. I just never dealt with it, you know? So my brother and I, classic adult children of alcoholic raised. And I got the same genetic disposition as my dad. And my brother didn't have that. Really? It doesn't have it, no. It's wild because I feel it.

I have it. Right. And luckily, I saw it early, but it's crazy that you would have it and your brother doesn't. Yeah. 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 wasn't there because of other circumstances? Probably both, you know, both and, you know. I think in the song we have Wild Hearts. You know, there's a song about, it opens with Johnny Cash, you know, saw the 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 that is subconsciously in me was 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, yeah. So I don't, I don't know if I saw it, It's hard to know, right? Was that, did I recognize in that person on stage with the guitar, did 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 going to 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 instrument? Tuesday, this week. This week?

It just happened, yeah. It's a great moment. You've been missing a lot. You've been doing pretty good up until Tuesday. us all fooled. Was it, was it 14, 15? 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? I don't know if I've ever felt that way. Really? Even now? No, because, you know, in Australia, yeah, because I've always been around people way better than me, always. And in Australia, there's like, the local guy

playing in the cover band, because people go, who are your influences? I'm like, oh, the guy in the local cover band, Barry Clough, and then Dallas Saldom, and then Reg Grant, and all these guys. playing in cover bands. I'm 12 years old, 13 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. Oh, I wish you could play as good as him. And you just, 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. That's a good question. Gosh, I don't know. For me, I'll vamp of it. As you think

about it, so you can have a good answer. For me, you know, it was John Mayer whenever he was starting because I felt someone writing the things that I was thinking and I never had experienced that before. Wow. He's a couple years older than I am, but I was like, wow, this guy, one, I liked his tone, I liked his 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 how to say it like that. It was the first time I'd ever heard that in song. Right. And I thought, wow, he's kind of speaking for me. Musically is the first time that it ever happened. So he became my first ever like that's my favorite artist.

There have been others that since I've done that. I'm a big counting crows guy too. But John Mayer was it for me now that I've given you a little time, who do you think it is for you? Well, what I actually think about is John Mellencamp is the guy that's coming to mind. The reason is

I grew up playing less country music, right? Going to all these talent quests and different competitions playing country music. But then I got to be 12, 13, 14. I left school at 15. I was playing in a cover band at 15. So we're just doing top 40. And I'm planning all the pubs in Australia.

And the pubs are rough places. You know, just concrete floor, hose it out at 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. I loved rock.

I love top 40. I'm like, what the hell do I do? Who am I musically? And then John put out Lonesome Jubilee, which was an album that had songs like Paper and Fire, Check It Out, Cherry Bomb, Yadda, 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. I was playing in a cover band. The band got tickets. We went to see him and we were way up in the nosebleeds in this arena. him and the band comes out and they play and it was it was so insanely great and it was rock country something whatever the hell was going on it was literally an epiphany 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 it how to put them together and and make it be like this and i was very lucky to meet john

many many years later and telling him that story and he said it's so great the the 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 and, you know, and just rip off John Mellencamp. But what I took from it was just do your own thing. Take all the things you love and be original.

John Mellencamp, obviously a Middle America guy who had country and rock roots at the same time, incorporated them all. 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. Of really anyone.

I mean, and I say that in, the most complimentary way, and I've told you this off of microphone too, like you do the best live show I've ever seen. You need to get out more, Bobby. I've seen a lot of live shows. I'm jaded at this point, too. I'm extremely jaded. That's a higher compliment then. Thank you. It is. Yeah, it is. I've seen it all, and I don't care to see any more because it's just part of the life we live, right? But when you're moved, you're so hard when you're jaded. And to watch you perform, I leave and I'm like, God dang, I just, I thought I'd seen it all. So because of that, 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 a different kind of percussion. Yeah. And the different self-vis for me as I play guitar. So that becomes a strong point 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. And really giving a shit. really, really like, this is the last gig I'll ever play. Every gig is the last 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, I'm like, I'm like,

I want to really work for this show, but it doesn't feel like work. It feels like that's who you are as an artist. Like that's the most genuine version of you. And again, if you haven't seen Keith's show and honestly this wasn't leading up to the promo of your tour yet your tickets are on it's until today which works in grade into this um and it's the it's the greatest live show i think i've seen because and i i don't know why you keep going into the audience you may not do that with covid now it's been it's been a pivot it i've just seen you do it so many times i'm like what like stop like i'm worried for your own health yeah like people um we were talking to jerry uh flower yeah yeah yeah he was talking to jerry clower yeah yeah he was talking about jerry clower

Jerry Flowers. Jerry Clowers, one of my favorites too, by the way. You ever meet Jerry Clowers? Only one time, and he is just a pistol. Yeah. Yeah. So the other Jerry, who you were in the ranch with

and who is your musical leader, band director, I don't know what you call that. Yeah, and bass player. 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. Oh, yeah? Yes.

I was like, wait, what? Like, I knew that was going to happen, But it's already happened. Like, they pulled your shirt off. Right. And they were biting you. Yeah. And you kind of give off that aura.

Like, you accept that. So we try and feed people before the show now. They're very passionate. Our audience is very passionate. Let me say this. The New American Tour, the Speed of Now World Tour, 2022. 53 shows between June 17th and November 5th of 2022. There is a full list of dates and tickets right now at keithurban.com.

Let's go back to, whenever we're, you're playing in these cover bands, what was the ceiling for you as far as for your career when you're 14, 15, 16 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 with a plan at all, none, just try and get better. I was playing in this cover band that I talked about in 1988 when I saw it Malen Camp, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wasn't the lead singer. I was guitar playing And we were, it was, for a cover band, we were doing a couple of thousand people on it,

on a Sunday afternoon, which was a lot of people 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? Well, we had a lead singer. That wasn't you? Wasn't me.

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'd done duos, I'd done bands, I'd always had my own thing, right? It was always me, 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 lead singer. 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'd be looking at the guys in the band i'm like here comes our song here comes our song we're going to get to do our song and he would bail on it every time he'd be like no i skip that one let's do monie mooney and i'm like uh and after a while of that i just went i'm not this is going nowhere what are you going to do with covers i want to want to play original music so i left

the band and the drummer and bass player quit at the same time and came and joined me. And so then what do you do? Is it a new name band? Is it, are you key? It was just me. It was just solo. But then I, because I couldn't get any work playing original songs. And so we resorted to be in another cover band, but slipping in my own songs in between the covers at least. Yeah. And so as you're doing your own music, are you in Australia at this point? Yeah. Yeah, it's all in Australia. Was the plan to get to the States? At some point, yeah, but I didn't know how how or when and nothing. You knew nothing about that.

Then how did you? So in 1989, my manager got some tickets for us to come over to America and we came to Nashville and spent lip-stayed down at the Shonies, which was on DeMondrian and pitched my crappy demo to all the labels and 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. 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 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 16th and 17th Ave. And I got here and I went, this is it? Is this it? This is the, this is the, this is the, this is the, this is.

legendary iconic music row. Like, that's it. I'm like, 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 off and running in no time. And man, the years just went by and by and fine. What were you doing? Could you make money, though, at the time? Like, if you're coming from Australia and you're just visiting, 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, well, it's not even a wage.

What is it like money that you're going to have to pay them back, right? So I'd come over for a couple of weeks on my own, stay with crash with somebody at their house, going to write songs every day with whoever they 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'd been writing probably by yourself?

Yeah, but yeah, it was really difficult. I also was nowhere near good enough yet, and so I'm getting with really great pro-writers, and I just sucked. I just had so much to learn that was excruciating. And are you learning, or are you overwhelmed? I think all, and also frustrated the way in which

I would write with my drum machine and my bass or a banjo or something, and always with a group. always. I would never sit with a guitar on a legal pad in a windowless room. So were you an early track guy? Yeah, definitely. Because 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? Just straight melody. Will you write a melody? Absolutely. And that's what you have and then you create around the melody. Yeah. Are you more prone to do that? 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, a beat, doesn't have to be fast,

just any kind of beat that I can then play along with, whether it's bass guitar, guitar, piano, something, banjo, whatever, it doesn't matter, just something that you pick up and just respond to, and then a melody comes, a melody comes of some sort. And then I think the music has an emotion about it. It's trying to say something. I'm like somebody like you. You know, that song started from flying out to L.A., meeting this guy, John Shanks. So I didn't know. 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 10 in the morning. And it was really good. So I had another one. And it was really good. So I had like a third one. I'd get in my car, drive over to the studio where he is.

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 go, dang-dang-da-dang-dun-lid-dun-d-d-d-d-dun-dang-dang-da. No idea why. It just came out. And we're like, oh, that feels good. What do we do with that, you know?

And so does something Gotta find some words And that's it And then you just The rest comes So you're creating that vocal melody too Without putting the words on Yeah

Yeah So So that that And then you'll go Would you record that Yeah You go back over and go Okay you know what's down here

Yeah Well a lot of times A gibberish is actually Trying to say something Like you'll listen to the tape Which we had a tape then And it would be It's a new

I never know you're like oh there's a there's a never something was that a new win something right there down never never known sounds like it's all in there I think Mick Jagger calls it making foul movements it's great

so as you're here and you're learning to write when does the ranch start to be a thing uh well this three piece band that I mentioned I had drummer bass player that I took from this cover band I thought well let's let's head out of in Nashville and do some shows.

All I can bring is bass playing and drums. I got no money. I can't afford anything. Right around that time, I actually had built out a five-piece band. I signed a record deal in Australia, did an album, put two more guys in my band,

keyboard and guitar. So I had drums bass, keyboard guitar, and me. And we were touring around, playing these songs off my album. So it was starting to happen in Australia. It was popping. It had a song on the radio. And it was like,

here we go. It's great. 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 of it. My bass player 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. It was not my preference. It just couldn't afford anymore.

players and that eventually became the ranch. What's interesting about that is 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 ranch cuts. Right. It feels like seven years later

that probably hits. Yeah. 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's always the thing, you know, with the record we made in 1997, just didn't sound like anything on the radio.

It was hell making that record because we were signed to Warner Brothers in 1995. And we went in with every court-appointed producer in town. Every one of those situations didn't work. Because what happens is we would either sound like us, which didn't sound like the radio, or we would sound like something that could go on the radio, but it didn't sound like us. And we were just 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 going to make it. I see it all the time. Right. They're like, well, you didn't make it, probably not for you. Yeah. Was there anyone that was like,

hey, I know that didn't work? And maybe it was just you. Right. But 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 why is because I was, I'd grown up on all this music. I knew how to make the music, but I didn't know how to make it with this band. This band had a unique sound about it. And the band wasn't, I wasn't trying to get the band signed. You know, the band wasn't in the plan originally. It morphed into that. So it was originally you?

It was me. It was me and my bass player. drummer. We didn't have a name. It was just my name. But we got messed around with so much by the record company and the 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 going to 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 we're going to send out you Keith and about four other artists on our label and you guys will all share the same band. And I went, no, I won't. You know, like, what do you mean? I go, I'm not, I'm not playing with, just, I got a band.

Right. Take my band with me. And they're like, yeah, but we didn't sign your band. I go, no, I know, but I mean, they're my band. It doesn't make sense when I play with someone else. And when we got dropped from that label and when I have it a capital, I said, you have to sign everybody. And I'm going to get rid of my name too, to 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 drop your name and just lose yourself in the band. but that's what I did. When you became Keith Urban, I want to roll through some number ones here, 2001, your first number one but for the grace of God. Let's hear a little bit of this. 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? Was it like, oh my God, thank you. But was it like, woo! That's what I'm talking about. Yeah.

Only above. It was surreal. To have a number one song in America was just crazy. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Really? Oh my gosh. 20 years ago, you still remember it like that, your first one. Fiddley, yeah.

I remember exactly the house I was at, what I was doing, who told me everything, like detail, because it was too surreal. I was like the number one most played song in country radio in America. Truly? Really? Did your life change after that? After you had a number one? since you could say it I felt like

okay now we got a chance to get some more music going and the next single after that I think was where the blacktop ends which is weird because it peaked it I was looking at numbers it wasn't a number one

no but that to me is one of the songs I think of when I think of you and your catalog is where the blacktop ends wasn't even number one which shows you not all number ones are career songs and not all career songs are number one song So true.

Even in 2001, 2002. Did that song feel big like a number one song? Where the black top ends? I can't remember that. That one you can't remember. No, 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 a studio

and having gone through all of the famous producers and realizing none of it works for me. It just, I don't know what I'm going to do. It was a guy running Capitol Records at the time called Pat Quigley. and he was the president, and I'd used every proper famous producer, and none of it was working. And I went into Pat,

and I said, can I just, I had just done a session with Matt Rawlings for somebody else. The two of us were playing on it. And I clicked with him, and I really liked him a lot. 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. Just, it was very much that case of like, go do whatever you want to do. We're not that interest. you could tell. It was like, whatever.

So we went and cut up to Grace God and like four or five songs and I took him in and played it for him and he goes, that sounds good to finish the record out. It was no big deal. And we handed in the record and it had, it's a love thing and want to be or everything, all the singles that came out, Grace God, blacktop, all that stuff. And they put out love, it's a love thing. I think I went to number 18 or something like, it's okay, pretty good. They put out another song.

want to beer 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 change after that. Whenever somebody like you comes out, 2002, here's a little clip. Do you remember this one is vivid, your second number one? Yeah.

You do, okay. Everything about it, recording it. First time I'd work with Dan Huff. working out at Sound Kitchen and Franklin and putting the band together and the whole session I remember it's so vividly

because it felt magical Does a guy like Dan Huff challenge you? So I was going to do the next record on my own Golden Road and I had already done six sides of that record including who wanted 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'm so not going to work with a guitar player who's going to tell me what to play. You know, I don't want that. I've been down this road before.

And they're like, well, just give it a shot, you know. And I met with Dan. And this is a true story. And I, it really is a compliment to Dan. I met with Dan. I said, okay, I've got this one song. It's called Somebody Like You, that'd be a good one for us to start on. and I'd already been in the studio for two weeks

with this band, we'd cut half the record, it was already done. And Dan says, okay, this song feels great. I think we should use this drummer, and I already got the drummer. Well, I think we should use this bass, 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 going to be at Sound Kitchen. Okay, well, the engineer I like to use. I already got the engineer. His name's Justin E. Bank. And he goes, what do I do? And I go, you just show up.

That's all you're going to 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. 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. I'd been with this band for two weeks. He walks in and I literally could feel all the musicianship go up a whole other level. Just with him being in the room. He sat in the room. 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 bass part out right there. And you play that bit over

there. And I watched him arrange this thing. And the whole track just elevated and I'm like, damn, this guy's the real deal. He's so good. When did the town start to treat you differently? Tuesday. It's the same day. I was already getting support from the town very early on, I think because of all those writing sessions, you know, and when you write with people, word 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, people's houses, going to the bluebird, people knew I was for real. I was watching some of your performance with her, I guess all of it, for Tina Turner for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Oh, wow.

How did you get called in to do that? I haven't seen any of that yet. You haven't? No. What do you mean you haven't seen it? Do you watch your stuff? No. Well, I haven't seen that. No. Generally, will you go and watch your stuff? It depends.

Are you one of the guys that after a live show, you want to go and critique it? I probably should do it more than I do. Yeah. Yeah. It's always better when I get in there and care. How does a rock and roll Hall of Fame invite come for Tina Turner? Because Brian Adams couldn't make it and they just called me up and they go

Would you come and fill in for Brian? It's like day before the COVID, right? That's why, yeah. It was Thursday and Nick and I were going to the Bahamas and my manager calls me and he goes, hey, can you come fill in for Brian? And I'm like, you were going to the Bahamas on Friday.

He's like, you didn't hear what I said. I was like, no, I heard you. We're heading off to the Bahamas. And Nick's in the car. And Nick's like, oh, I think we should do that. That sounds fun. But I 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 to hear.

Yeah, too well. That anything means. musically would intimidate you. Yeah, to be thrown into something that's not really my zone, especially in that place. I'm like, I'm going to be standing up on stage in front of McCartney and the food fighters. And they're all, you know, I pictured them all like arms crossed like, okay, what do you do? What's your thing? And I'm like, well, it's not this.

This is not it. That's all 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 wise? Yeah, you and who? Oh, so many.

I mean, John, doing Crossroads with John Mayer. To this day, I just loved that whole experience with him playing. I learned a lot from him. Really? You learned from him. Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. What do you learn from John Mayer?

To make the song your own. You got to remember, I still came from cover band Land, which John did not. and Sir John approaches it as a pure artist and makes it on his own because I remember saying to him no the verse doesn't go like that he's like yeah but that's how I'm going to sing it I went right on

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 two people that are 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 heard for yourself

like on a record or on YouTube. And not John specifically, but anyone, you know, when you kind of cross paths. Because I had room for squares and we played that record to death on our two of us. So I was a fan right from the beginning. I love the conversation, the musical conversation that happens. And the most important thing for me is spontaneity. It's just, you know, you can rehearse, yeah, yeah, yeah. But being in the moment and having that musical conversation with each other,

is everything. You ever meet someone and you're like, man, it's going to be awesome. and you're like, man, it's not really what I, not really as good as I thought. Or as, and you know, I don't want you to say who. Some people don't have a collaborative heart. That's what it is. They don't have a collaborative heart for whatever reason.

They just don't collaborate. They 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, who have you collaborated with it, you were like, well, I didn't expect it to be as warm and as a

just a friendly collaboration, but holy crap, we're in it, and it's rocking. Pink, I think, was that when we did one too many. Why do you think you guys hit it off? 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 giving with that whole project. You know, for a song that she didn't write to be giving so much of her time and her effort to, you know, we shot a video as well, and then we shot footage which we can use in concert, so we have her projected on the screen in concert. That's all 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 and when they want to put out their own, to get pink on a song, do you go, okay, well, maybe we can release it a single, maybe not, depending on what your schedule is? Right. I mean, is that something? Is that an issue that you deal with with other artists? It's something you have to consider. Yeah, for sure. Because sometimes it's just the timing's not going to work. You know, yeah, it's great.

This single sounds really great, but we're not going to be able to release it at the right time. I was 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? I don't know. We've never talked about it. Exactly. Or been bowling. True, but where do you, where do you bowl? I haven't bowled in a long time. It's just one of those things that I happen to be not bad at, sort of out of the gate.

It's that eye-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. Did you have an average? 200-something. Really? Yeah. It's not great.

Me, 300's a perfect game, right? You ever done that? Definitely could crack, no. It definitely could crack 200. You play pool? Yeah. You go to that? I think it's mandatory when you're from Australia.

You've got to play pool. Is that a thing? Yeah. All the pubs I grew up and they all had pool tables. It's a sign of a misspent youth. Well, think about that, though. 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 not a coincidence. All those are very hand-eye-coordinated. Do you think being a good guitar player helps you be a good bowler? I suck at basketball. I cannot get that thing in the hoop.

So there goes that theory. You, true or false, you were once, a road guitarist for a bit for Brooks and Dunn? No. Never. One of the many things on Wikipedia, it's not true. I didn't think the bowling was true, I'll be honest with you. I expected that to be false. Right, okay, yeah.

So where does that story come from? Do you know? Yeah, we toured with Brooks and Dunn in 2001, and I came out and played one song with them as a guitarist. And I think that then from then on people were a backup. Yeah, I was like the guy in the band. well what happened was we were going to pull a prank on them and they had a guitar player in a band Charlie I forgot in his last name Charlie and he had his hat down real he had wore a hat wore it down super low

had this like leopard print shirt and everything and during the tour I was thinking I could probably masquerade it's I could probably pretend to be him and the boys wouldn't even know and so during 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 then in the middle of the when the solo happened

kicks goes Charlie! And I ran down the front and was shredding right in between kicks and Ronnie it took a beat for them to realize I wasn't Charlie. But they did realize it eventually. So I think that was where this rumor got started. What'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. Right. It's a weird situation. Yeah. Like when I see you two, if we're an event or something, I feel like as a couple, you're quite approachable.

Individually, it's different because I feel like I know you and I can just come up to you. Yeah. But individually, I would say you're superstar Keith Urban and she is superstar Nicole Kidman. But together, it's almost like 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, 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. Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. You'd be doing our house. It's like super normal.

I saw her tell you once that she was going to stop and get some milk. Right. And I was like, you do that? What do you mean you're going to get milk? Shouldn't someone be flying that in? Flying the cow in? be rock and roll

how do you guys maintain what do you focus on to try to have normalcy in a life that is abnormal I mean look love genuine love and genuine gratitude for what we get to do Nick has it I have it and I think it's

we were both raised in a similar thing too Australia is really Australia has a thing called a tall poppy syndrome every Aussie knows about this and it's if you get too big in the south they say when you get above your raisin right they cut you down you get cut down the poppy seed plant is another one the tall poppy gets cut there you go so that's it so it's the it's the tall poppy syndrome where you you don't last very long if you're strutting around with this crazy ego in

Australia you get cut down so fast so you just are always down to earth you're out of work it's one of the two and it's it's put us in a 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 ask 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. No. Because I think, you know, as you talk about the trauma from your, 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?

she really loves, genuinely loves and has real empathy, compassion, caring, and love like I've 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 expect it to be great? No, I'm amazed at it. She's so good. She's so good. Yeah. And I don't know anything about acting. Sometimes people say,

ah, so-and-so's a bad actor, and I'm like, all looks the same to me. However, I was watching on Hulu Nine strangers Watch the whole thing She's so good in that That you then go

Okay that's good acting And she is nailing these series If she's in a series I'll watch it Right 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 All right That's her next series I'm going to watch it Because she has showed That she's awesome in these things Do you talk about projects with her? Does she talk about?

projects with you and do you roll them together and like should we do this yeah yeah because we have to talk about scheduling and where it is and how's this going to work and then of course a lot of the times reading scripts with her you know this the uh being the ricardo's which is the liceal ball film that's coming out uh Aaron Salkin wrote most amazing scripts and just getting to read these scripts is something that is god's surreal you read with her sometimes yeah you ever want to do that especially some no I have zero interest in acting like none zero zero Does she ever hear a song of yours and go, eh, that's okay? She doesn't have to. I can tell.

But here's the thing that's more important, and you may be able to relate to this. I realize that whoever I play a song for, and I've had you at the house, and I've played you things before, how you react that song tells me a lot about the song. But what tells me more is how I feel playing it 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 go, oh, 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, EP's albums? Because it's a new land out there. Yeah. It's attention spans are different. Sorry, what? Exactly.

But it is getting that way, right? Yeah. So how are you feeling these days about 12, 13, 14, 14 track albums? Why are, do you see you? changing how you're doing Keith Urban distribution of music? I still like to think it comes down to quality, the quality of something. Because people go, oh, people want shorter, they're short of that. And I'm like, only because a lot of what's out there is just not great.

It's okay. It's not great. And it's not great because it's having to be churned out at such a fast rate now because it's content, content, content, quick. You have it with your show. And 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.

Always. How can I give you the best most? Exactly. That's exactly it. And I miss a lot because sometimes I do most 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 demand for more and more and more and more.

Quality takes time. Not always, but most of the time it takes a beat. 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 uh i will say my record company capital records who i've been with a long time i've never ever felt anything but support for for what i do they've 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 had 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 going to be an old song. But I have a sick memory for lyrics of songs. It's crazy. You bring up, I brought it up, but we talked about it with Ronnie Dunn, who I've oddly become friends with and we're opposite in many ways, but we were texting last night. There's a big picture when you walked into this guest house. He's sent over to the house of like a bull 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 someone in his ear the whole time. Right.

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 a good memory. Right. So they're like, out in the country, out in the country. I mean, they're right in there. That's excellent. I mean, voice of an angel, but holy crap, we can't remember words. That's a high-pressure gig for the guy in the ear.

And it's, yeah, very much so. Yeah. 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, Ron. Ron, don't, yeah, Ron Burgundy. Ron Burgundy. Oh, man, you could get Burgundy, San Diego real quick.

Fix us off the prompter there. Let's talk about the new single, and then I do want 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 every songwriter on this song, which is pretty cool. Oh, good. Eric Passlays a dear friend of mine. Jen Wayne.

Yep. Same. Now she's in a group herself. Runaway June. There it is. Brad Tursey 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 I got pitched the song from Roxy King. And I heard it. And I was like, I like, I like the chorus. I don't really, the rest of it's not pulling me. me and so I passed on the song. And then about two weeks later, I'll work up one morning singing this chorus in my head and I'm like, what is that? That's that wildhurt's song. It's a 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 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. I'm like, well, What about, 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 that they would go, yes. And I said to them, I said, I'm a writer, so I get this. First of all, I'm not one of these guys that's going to be like, I added the word the, give me 50%, right?

I've never been that guy. And I said, you guys have written the 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, and I can rewrite these verses and they come up the way I think they will, I'm definitely recording the song. And God bless them, they let me do that. The North American Tour, the speed of now world tour 2022.

The tickets are on still now, Keith Urban.com. How long do you think? You have another 10 years of doing these really high energy shows in you? I don't even think about that. I mean, just the next show. Next show. I mean, I'm injured. My whole body's still injured from my Nat Geo show.

Right. Yeah, I bet. 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. Yeah. I have her wrist, her shoulder hurt everything.

My tour is not that show. But your tour, I'm telling you. The thing is that show. You're mad, man. Your tour is, again, is the most energetic show I've ever seen from a superstar who doesn't have to be that energetic. because he's already a superstar. And I mean that in the most complimentary way.

You could go out and just put on a solid show and be Keith Urban and people would 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, well, I only know one volume to get out there and play at. There isn't, I mean, if it's real passion

and the audience knows it, they're like, that's legit, that's a guy surfing on the wave, not thinking about it, but it's really happening, and I can feel it. It's true. It's in the moment.

Do you lose yourself in shows? Definitely. Yeah, 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 and I'll be like, holy crap, I don't even know how I got here. Right. Like subconscious has completely taken over and then I feel unsafe and I'm like, you're telling me people to drive. 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 a show where you're three songs later and you're like, dear God, how does I even get here?

No, no. I mean, maybe, no, not really, not even a moment. I was thinking about a moment in a song. No, because I don't know. I'm just super present. But I'm also thinking, I'm taking a multi-processing, right? Which I think you do 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've got to do, and it's all multi-processing all at once. And you're totally here as well. I feel like I'm completely present, but I think I'm good at being present while also delegating my mind to do other things at the same time. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. What do you say on that microphone when you walk over that nobody hears? You know the little microphone when you're talking to it? Oh, right. Yeah. You have one of those?

Yeah. When you walk back, if it's four songs in and only your guys on stage can hear you. Because for those that don't know, some of my friends that have them call them, we'll call it a B mic. Mike. Rhyms with the word rich. They'll be like, we'll talk into the rich mic. Right. If you're going to that microphone, what are you saying in the middle of a show? Why would the mic be called that, by the way?

No idea. That's weird. 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.

Oh, okay. Never heard that. Well, I don't say it. That's crazy. So. We stole it from Kenny Chesney when I was on two with him and I saw he had one. I'm like, well, that's perfect because everyone's got in ears and you can actually talk to everyone immediately.

Aren't you worried it's going to get out over the top? No. You're not at all? Not that, Mike. No. What do you say? is it like hey guys we're gonna switch songs or we're gonna play in a different or on my throat hurt 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 oh really like you see something out there for sure security has ears in and they can hear that i know that it's gonna get to where it's got to get to if maybe not directly someone will relay the message but yeah if i feel like there's just heavy-handed security at a place not letting people have fun or anything like that i'll 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 you and you're like thank you guys been great like i love the blue light video at the end of the show right that's funny so much so

there have been a couple of times where you know we did a we've done a couple of shows We did a festival. I threw a festival in Texas, and we had like four or five thousand people. We had to get out. And I was like, hey, I want to get that blue light like Keith Irvin because I got to get that shot. So you're inspiring me in ways you had no idea. That's great. It's much better to have them 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 so it feels like it's midnight. I'm a little tired. Kind of run through it here. Anything you'd like to say, Reed, you're a massive. Keith fan. Reed is my video guy. I am. He's been looking forward to this whole life. Oh, my gosh. So, Reed, this is your one shot with Keith. Is there anything, take a deep breath?

All right. That you'd like to ask Keith. All right, Keith. I don't know. All I'm thinking about is when I first started learning guitar, my dad got me your Golden Road DVD that had all the music videos on it. And I would stand in front of the TV and I would try to mimic and try to 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 got me the tickets, and of course you were out in the crowd running around. And you came up to us, and I can just remember my girlfriend just going, Keith, Keith! That was probably me, actually. But, yeah, so those are just the moments that came up to me. Just a huge fan, man.

Thank you so much. How's the playing coming along? Oh, it's good. Yeah? Yeah. You're still playing? Yeah, sir. I love songwriting.

I don't do a lot of playing shows or anything, but I love to produce my own music as well and write songs. Great. Yes, sir. There we have. A emotional moment here. I'll mention this before you go to. As we were walking out of our wedding, we played God Whispers your name. Oh, wow, man.

Thank you. writers, or one of the writers saw me out, I was getting some ice cream with Caitlin. And he was like, you guys played when God whispered your name at your wedding. And I was like, first time I heard keep singing that song. I was like, that's it. I felt that. 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 met my wife now, I went, this is that song. 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 the 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 one of those few moments where a song just kind of... You're super romantic. Punches you in the gut.

You really are. Yeah, okay. Maybe. You got married. And you love that kind of song. And, yeah, Dan and Shet played you winning. Yeah, cool. And the funny part about that was my wife and Abby Smyers are really close friends.

Dan and I have been buddies for a long time. And I was like, hey, look, they're like, whatever you want. We'll play. Like, Dan was like, 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 song. They have the best love. But I didn't.

I picked a Beach Boy song. Oh, what song did you pick? Forever. I don't know that song. When every word I say will make you laugh. I talk forever. Dennis Wilson wrote it. I don't know that song.

Jesse and the Rippers later did it on Full House. Dennis Wilson wrote it? The drummer? Wow. And they crushed it. And they did it. I'm going to have to check that song at now. They put it on a, they gave us a file.

They recorded it as well as a wedding gift to us. It was awesome. Amazing. And what was cool was, even 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? I was like, that's the greatest gift ever.

So he sang neon moon. It was awesome. Oh, my goodness. It was awesome. Wow. How did he remember all the words? I worried too. I said, do we need to get that mic for you over on the side? We didn't. He knew the words, though. Had the cell phone up his ear the whole time.

All right, get tickets. They're on sale today. Keith Urban, the speed of now world tour 2022. They're up. Go see him. This podcast, this show is heard in all kinds of countries. So obviously North America, but all over the world. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you do it. And maintain the energy. I love what I do. I love what I get to do. And truly, it's a, you know, people, people go, oh, 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, born with the addictive gene, I went to three rehabs

in the span of eight years. The first rehab was 1998. My second one was 2003 and my third one was 2006. And it took what it took for me to finally get sober. 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 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 through? 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 treat other people. Do you think you were two different people before and after your final run, your final time in 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, like Keith Urban is the nicest guy. were you known early in your career as 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 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 bridge builder. I'm a bridge builder. I'm an entertainer. I think I was the, I was the peace person. You know, if you have an identity in your home, I was the bridge builder between my brother and my father, always trying to kill each other.

I was like, I'm going to be the one that keeps the peace here. And I think I've carried that into my life. All right, go to a show. Listen to the music. Keith Urban. Thank you. Always good to talk to you, Bobby. Yeah, great to talk to you too.

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