Keith+Urban
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Keith Urban

Defying Gravity
(Album)
 2009
Sweet Thing
(Radio Single)
 2008
You Look Good In My Shirt
(Radio Single)
 2008
Once In A Lifetime
(Single)
 2006
Once In A Lifetime (Ra...
(Radio Single)
 2006
You'll Think Of Me
(Radio Single)
 2005
Making Memories Of Us
(Radio Single)
 2005
Keith Urban (Live From...
(Radio Single)
 2005
Days Go By
(Single)
 2004
Be Here
(Album)
 2004
Golden Road
(Album)
 2002
Keith Urban Keith Urban
Official Biography (MAY 2001)

Flashback: A seven-year-old boy in Australia listens to his parents' records as he learns to play the guitar. Charley Pride pours out of the speakers, followed by Don Williams and Dolly Parton. He learns every note, sings every line. He declares with utmost certainty that when he grows up, he will move to Nashville, Tennessee, where he will make his own country music records.

And that's exactly what he did. Today, Keith Urban is one of country music's fastest-rising stars. Just this year he's been nominated for a Grammy, an American Music Award and an Academy of Country Music Award. His self-titled solo album has been certified gold by the RIAA, and spawned three hit songs: "It's A Love Thing" was Top 15. "Your Everything" reached #4. And "But For The Grace of God" became his first American #1 song, reaching the top spot in Billboard, R&R and Gavin.

The Chicago Tribune named Keith Urban one of the year's 10 Best Country Records. The Los Angeles Times deemed urban a "country artist to watch." Fellow artists heaped praise on the up-and-comer: "Keith is passionate about his music, and you can hear it pour from his soul," said Patty Loveless, after singing with him. "He's going to be big," predicted Ronnie Dunn, as Keith joined the Brooks & Dunn 2001 summer tour. "He brings heaps of credibility to country music," said Martie Seidel of the Dixie Chicks, who sings background vocals, along with fellow Chick Emily Robison, on one of the songs on Keith's album.

"Music, to me, is breathing," urban says. He first picked up a guitar at age six, decided at seven that he would come to Nashville to play country music and at eight was entering country music talent shows. At fourteen he had steady club gigs with a band. After admiring the guitar playing of a bandmate who said he modeled his style on Dire Straits, urban bought an album by the band and learned every single note. As he became more and more adept at the guitar, he threw what he learned into his solos onstage. The resulting fusion of rock-style guitar work with country music became urban's signature style. In 1988, he formed a three-piece band whose distinctive take on country music led to solid success in their home country. After charting four #1 country singles, he decided the time had come to move to Nashville.

Soon after settling in, he formed another three-piece band, The Ranch. Their live shows caused a buzz in town, eventually leading to a record deal with Capitol Nashville and the release of a self-titled album. Critics raved about the album's unique take on country music and on Keith's virtuoso guitar playing.

After that one album, The Ranch disbanded. Urban started to plan his solo record at the same time he endured a number of personal setbacks, including the end of a long relationship. With his life in turmoil, he found it impossible to write a decent song. In desperation he peeled away a lifetime of making music to discover the core. He listened to hundreds of records - from Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys to old Boz Scaggs and Eagles, to Joe Diffie and Patty Loveless. He asked himself, "Who am I? What do I do? What do I like? What do I not like? Why am I doing this? Why am I in Nashville?"

He focused on the music first. "I tried to find a common trait in all the records that I liked., " Keith recalls." I realized that the rhythm was what was getting me - the melody and the rhythm and the freshness of it all. In my studio I started sampling bits of records that I'd collected, the bits of them that I liked, and then added banjo to them."

Lyrically, he drew on his own situation. As a result, the album gives a detailed and expressive tour of every phase possible in a relationship the giddy joy of finding someone you want to spend all your time with, the exhausted surrender to a mate who won't commit, the deep devotion that settles in after that giddy start, the stark reality of being alone again after a breakup, the simple contentment of sharing a life together. "I realized how important it is to have someone beside you, in your corner no matter what may happen. A partner," urban says. "When you have that, you're free to do whatever you need to do."

"I Thought You Knew" is the lament of a man who assumed that the woman in his life understood how much he cared, even when he didn't express it. "But For the Grace of God" captures a moment when a man, hearing another couple's problems, realizes he has something to treasure. On "It's A Love Thing" urban proudly declares his intention to decline a night out with the guys, so that he can spend time with his girl. Loneliness and heartbreak permeate "Out On My Own," but the song ends with a reassuring note.

"I try to see the light, even in the darkest circumstances," says urban. "There are songs on the album about losing love, but not being beaten or downtrodden by that loss."

The music fits hand in glove with the emotions. A gifted musician, Keith teamed with noted keyboardist Matt Rollings to produce the album. "I saw Matt at work and thought, 'you're the guy.' His temperament was even and his sense of quality was extremely superior," says urban. He paid attention to detail without being anal. He has a great sense of rhythm and melody and we share the same sonic sensibility."

As the leader of a country band in Australia, urban melded country with rock guitar. In Nashville, with the band The Ranch, he incorporated R&B into the mix. For his solo album, he imported the rhythms of pop and hip-hop. "When I listened to hip-hop music, I would hear banjos in my head," Keith says. "And so I set out to fuse drum loops with country instrumentation on this album," says urban, "not as a novelty, but as a great marriage of rhythm and computer percussiveness with banjos and acoustic guitars and fiddles."

"I have this need to keep country being perceived as a cool genre and a broad genre," says Urban. "I really think that country is a genre as big as rock and roll."