Keith Urban is on the road with Ingrid Andress, on his The Speed of Now World Tour., and will soon also be joined by Tyler Hubbard, but he’s no stranger to being an opening act. In fact, one of his earliest gigs was opening for Brooks & Dunn, when Urban was still part of the group, The Ranch. It was an opportunity that helped kick off his superstar career, and one that Urban says never would have happened without one of the Brooks & Dunn members.
“Kix Brooks, hands down, top of the list,” Urban tells Taste of Country, when asked if there was an artist that was instrumental in the early years of his career. “I’ve been very fortunate to have lots of headline acts be very good to me over my support act years. Kenny Chesney being another one who was great to me. But Kix I always think of, because he was certainly the first in Nashville who really went above and beyond in believing what I was doing and supporting us.”
When Urban was playing in The Ranch, Brooks often came out to see the group play, including one time that was less than desirable.
“He would come out to see us play and he came out this one night — I think the very first time he saw us play — he came out to this dingy little club we were playing and he had just been at some highfalutin black tie event with his wife, Barbara, and they decided to swing by this club on their way home.
“They walked in dressed to the nines in this complete, down-trodden, beer-soaked, shag-carpeted place,” Urban continues with a laugh.” And there was no seating there; it was tiny. It was full of people. He found a seat for Barbara and there was none for him, so he just came and sat on the filthy carpet in his nice suit right at the foot of the stage.”
Perhaps surprisingly, as soon as Urban was done with his set, Brooks issued him an invitation to join them on tour — an invitation Urban wasn’t quite sure was sincere, at least at first.
“I came off the stage and came out and said hi, and he said, ‘Man, you guys sound great. Would you wanna come out and tour with us?'” Urban recalls. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure we would.’ Like, how drunk is this guy (laughs). And he said, ‘No, I’m serious.’ I said, ‘We don’t even have a record out or anything.’ And he’s like, ‘Ah, our audience would love you.'”
Not only was Brooks serious, but he didn’t waste any time in getting Urban and The Ranch out on the road with Brooks & Dunn.
“Sure enough, some weeks later we were in our crappy Armada van with a trailer on the back, backing into this arena in Connecticut amongst all these big Brooks & Dunn semi-trailers, loading in for soundcheck. Kix stayed behind after he did his soundcheck and walked around, talked to all the road crew like, ‘These are our boys. Take great care of them. Anything they need.’ He was just a champion. He was a class act, right from day one.”
Hubbard will join Urban’s The Speed of Now World Tour beginning on September 3. All of Urban’s upcoming shows can be found here.
