Keith Urban is only a few days away from kicking off his long-awaited High and Alive World Tour. The tour begins on May 22 in Orange Beach, Alabama, marking Urban’s first major tour since his Speed of Now World Tour in 2022.
As an artist who has built a superstar career by paying attention to every detail, Urban is especially aware of the experience he wants his fans to have during his live shows.
“People don’t have to know every song, they just have to be well placed,” Urban explains. “The energy and the theme have to be suitable for that part of the evening in that playlist. We’re a boombox that needs to be playing the right things at the right time, in the right order for them. Know them, don’t know them isn’t as important as is that the right feeling. We’ll find that balance of choosing our moments to go for a ride. ‘Cause all you’re trying to do is create a really great evening, so they go home and they go, ‘God, that was a lot of fun.'”
@keithurban TOUR STARTS THURSDAY 🚨🤘 Orange Beach, Alpharetta, and Charleston we’ll see ya this weekend !! #highandaliveworldtour ♬ original sound – Keith Urban
Urban has been vocal about his excitement for his High and Alive World Tour, and his eagerness to be performing in front of his fans again.
“I’m super impatient right now,” Urban recently said told Audacy. “I wish I was touring tomorrow. I wish we were playing Orange Beach tomorrow … This production we put together, we built it for this tour, but we had a residency in Vegas looming, which was October last year. So we put together this production in time to do the Vegas residency, and use it as an experimental venue with people to figure out how to shape and utilitize the set and everything.”
Urban also hand-picked all of his opening acts, choosing Chase Matthew, Alana Springsteen and Karley Scott Collins, rising artists he is a fan of personally.
“Chase I had heard about a couple of years ago, and just loved his voice, and his vibe, and his songs are great,” the New Zealand native says. “He’s great live, and I thought my audience would really like him a lot. Alana Springsteen sat in with us when we played Summerfest in Milwaukee, and we did a song together. I just loved her vibe, and her voice is so good. So I asked her if she wanted to tag along.
“And then Karley Scott Collins was an artist that a friend of mine, Nathan Chapman, was producing,” he continues. “He called me up and said, ‘I’ve got this track I’d love for you to play a solo on.’ Went into the studio, heard it. Loved her voice, loved the song. Got to meet her, and thought she’s a great fit as well, so we’re bringing all three of them out.”
Urban’s High and Alive World Tour also includes a few new band members. Urban admits the reason for his new lineup likely isn’t clear to anyone but himself.
“I’ve always just followed the inner voice that says it’s time to make a change, in any area of my life, and sort of just leap. Just take the leap,” Urban shared with Everything Nash and other outlets, during a recent media event. “I don’t always know where I’m going. It’s a little bit like playing live on stage. I don’t always know what I’m going to do next. There’s something exhilarating about living that way, and about performing that way.
“Again, we’ve been really lucky with this band,” he continued, “because we’ve got these five shows in February in Vegas that we got to do as a new band, and get some shows under our belt, before we get into rehearsals for our tour. I’m really looking forward to getting out with the new band, new songs, new production, new everything.”
Find music and tour dates at KeithUrban.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the CMA