Keith Urban was born in New Zealand, and raised in Australia. Urban relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 1992 to focus on country music, but was unaware of the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
“My first Thanksgiving actually was with a family who, it was the Crain family,” Urban recalls. “I was friends with the guy called Billy Crain, and his brother was the guitarist in Charlie Daniels’ band. And so the Crain family, very, very, very Southern, that was my first Thanksgiving, and it was the greatest experience. Because first of all, I realized, make sure you don’t eat two days before Thanksgiving. Don’t eat anything for two days. Because not only are there going to be like eight dishes, all brought by all the relatives, but all the relatives are watching to see if you eat their dish.
“And Billy Crain was saying to me, ‘Oh, you got to try this. You got to try that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m good.’ And they go, ‘No, no, no, I’m saying you have to, because they’re watching. It was awesome.”
Keith Urban Releases Deluxe Version of ‘HIGH’ With 6 Live Songs
Urban’s HIGH album came out in 2024. He recently released a deluxe version of the record, with six new songs, recorded during his latest High and Alive World Tour. The live versions of songs on the deluxe version of HIGH are “Straight Line,” “Messed Up As Me,” “Go Home W U,” “Chuck Taylors,” “Heart Like A Hometown,” and Laughin’ all The Way To The Drunk.”
Earlier this year, the 58-year-old revealed he was working on two new projects.
“We have a live album coming out sometime this year,” Urban reveals on Country Countdown USA. “I’ve never done one. It’s kind of crazy. We felt on this tour, it was feeling musically special, the crowd energy was really special, so let’s start capturing some of these and see if we can do an album.”
“I’ve been writing quite a bit,” he adds, “I’ve been recording quite a bit. I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio. That’s what I do. I don’t have hobbies. I love music. That’s what I do.”
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Keith Urban On ‘The Road’
Urban is also part of the hit TV show, The Road, alongside Blake Shelton, who is producing with Taylor Sheridan, and Gretchen Wilson. Contestants, who are being eliminated weekly, try to win over Urban’s fans, by serving as his opening act.
“It’s a concept that Blake was one of the people behind it,” Urban says (via Coyote Country). “I loved the idea, and I loved that Taylor Sheridan was going to be involved in it, just from a visual standpoint and the style of the show. The concept of putting artists in a real-world environment versus a TV studio was really appealing to me, because I had not seen that before where there’s no vocal coach backstage, there’s no A & R’ing of their songs. They have to choose a cover, and they have to choose an original, and they’ve got to go out and make that work in front of an audience that isn’t there to see them.”
Photo Credit: CMA / Josh Brasted