Keith Urban loves his audience. Urban, who is currently headlining his High and Alive World Tour, praises his fans who keep coming to his shows, allowing him to even be able to tour at all.
“First of all, without the audience, it’s just one long sound check,” Urban says. “So the audience is everything, everything. I was thinking the other day, there’s a line in a Jackson Browne song called ‘The Load Out,’ where he talks about the audience. He goes, ‘People, you’ve got the power over what we do. You can sit there and wait or you can pull us through.’ The audience has so much power to make or break a show. We as a performer can only do so much.
“I’ve watched our audience night after night after night just give so much to me on stage,” he adds. “And when that happens, you can just play forever. If we didn’t have curfews, we’d play way longer.”
The father of two also knows the sacrifices it takes for many people to come to one of his concerts. It’s a sacrifice he doesn’t take lightly, and inspires him to give everything he has every time he takes the stage.
“The other thing that I really am aware of, especially having kids, when you want to go to a concert, it’s a big deal,” Urban concedes. “It’s not like going to the movies. It’s a very different thing. You know, parking and babysitters and the like – are we going to carpool? And tickets at will call. We have to get there two hours [early] to line up. And it’s a big, big deal. And then parking, all the expenses, it goes through the roof. So my want is to give them the greatest night and give everything I’ve got, to not take that for granted.”
View this post on Instagram
Urban’s name might be the one in lights, but there are plenty of other people who allow him to be able to do what he does, even though they may never be recognized for their hard work.
“The crew, they’re always the unsung heroes of everything that the audience comes to see,” Urban tells the CMA. “Everybody behind the scenes that makes this thing happen, and is happening – to have them celebrated for their level of dedication and commitment and passion for what they get to do, and sacrifices that they make. There are truck drivers and riggers and the carpenters, and everybody that’s behind the scenes, who make this thing happen, city to city to city. They’re away from their families more than most artists are. And so their families are home supporting them. It’s a huge calling and a big ask, and we get to be the beneficiaries out front.”
Urban’s plan to tour in 2024 were canceled when he scrapped his former album, in favor of making HIGH. Because of that, it was three years since Urban toured, an almost impossible gap of time for him to be away from the concert stage.
“I live for touring,” Urban says. “It’s where everything just seems to align in my life, and I feel like I know what my purpose is, and this is what I do. We haven’t toured since 2022, so since then of course we’ve made the HIGH album. And the amount of songs that are on that HIGH album that we get to do live, it’s just made for such a great experience out here on the road.”
Find all of Urban’s High and Alive World Tour dates at KeithUrban.com.
Photo Credit: CMA / Josh Brasted