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How Did Keith Urban Bounce Back After Losing Confidence? · Inside Country with Wayne D

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  I say this all the time to start interviews, and it's like my crutch
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  that I'm excited to talk to insert artists here, but I'm super excited to
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  talk to Keith Artisen. Thanks. You're honestly one of the nicest dudes.
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  And that's that's one of my favorite things about like Tay and I's role in
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  country radio and country music is we get to meet people's favorite artists and then
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  turn around and be like you picked a good one, like this is a
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  good guy and you truly you have this ability when you talk to people like
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  you're busy, you're going one hundred miles an hour, you're getting ready for
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  a show, you're putting out a song, but like you connect with people
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  and that's cool. Like from where I said, so, I appreciate that
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  you bet how are thanks? Thank Absolutely? Yeah, things are great because
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  Keith Urban's got some new music to talk about finally. Yeah. Yeah,
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  it feels like forever. It's it's the whole record's taken so long because I
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  started a different album than the one that ended up being finished. So it's
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  been quite the journey. At the point you're at in your career, do
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  you appreciate the journey a little more like we're going to take our time,
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  We're going to get it right, like I want to be satisfied, or
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  knowing how quick people consume music now you're like, no, we just got
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  to get we got to do something. It's that's a really good question because
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  it's it's kind of where the two worlds crash a little bit. Is the
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  time I like not like to take. It's not true. I'd like to
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  bang out an album in a week. If I could, that'd be amazing
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  because I got things to do. But they take what they take. Sometimes
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  they're really quick and sometimes they're super long, and sometimes they want to go
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  in a different direction. And this album I started over two years ago and
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  ended up with like thirteen songs, and February last year, I thought,
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  there's my album. Finally, great, let's get going. I bring it
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  into my team and I play it to everybody, and as I'm playing it
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  in this conference room, I'm like, ah, this is not it.
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  You're seeing faces of my feeling for the first time playing it for other people.
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  I could just feel all the wind going out of me. And then
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  then the energy in the room was a little bit similar, and I was
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  like, this is not it is it? You know? And they're like,
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  well, you tell me, and I went, it's not. But
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  there was like four really good songs in that record, messed up as me
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  being one of them and I or maybe five songs and the rest was like
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  that were really good songs. It was just everything was just the same kind
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  of thing, and I just knew. I was like, ah, this
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  is going to take another's that's twenty three gone. Twenty twenty three is gone,
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  I can tell, And sure enough, here we are for every twenty
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  four and the record's finished. Well, so let me ask you this,
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  and it comes from a place of respect because you've had so much success,
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  You've had the Vegas residency, you've toured all over the world. Do you
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  ever feel when you're playing it for your team or you know, whether it's
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  your label team or management team, do you ever feel like people are gonna
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  be like, I'm not going to tell Keith Urban this sucks, like I'm
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  gonna go it's great, let's go. I've learned that the way I feel
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  about it is actually everything. If I was one hundred percent in in that
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  February, my team would have gone with it because I was one hundred percent
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  in, but I wasn't, you know, And I can't be ninety eight
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  percent in. I mean I can't because I'm going to go too of this
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  record. I'm going to talk about it like this, So if I'm not
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  one hundred percent in, I got to figure out why. So take me
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  through. When you played that album, you kind of were the wind came
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  out of your sales. I went out to the car and cried. I'm
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  so embarrassed to say it, but I'm just going to say that's because I
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  was. I was angry, I was disappointed, I was gutted. I
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  was like, yeah, I'd put a lot of work into that, and
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  to feel the way I did was just crushing. And I also knew the
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  work that was ahead of me because it was like back in the studio,
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  writing more songs, writing more songs, and I went, this thing's just
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  gonna take nothing like a rug from under your kind of feelings. It was.
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  It was huge because I knew it was like, Okay, well,
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  we're not going to tour next year. It was that kind of quick.
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  It was like we're supposed to tour in twenty twenty four, and in February
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  twenty three, I'm looking at it going, I bet we don't do little
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  twenty five. I can see the writing on the wall. Two is it
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  gonna go by? And sure enough, this is what's going on. Number
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  one. That shows how much the fans mean to you. You have enough
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  hits where you could be like, we'll get the record right, but like,
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  let's still go on the road and we'll put on the show and they
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  got enough songs, but it shows you're like, Nope, I got to
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  make sure that everything's right here before we go do that. Because if the
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  record doesn't work, that's okay. I just can't. I couldn't have it
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  not be liked or work or whatever and also not be one hundred cent myself
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  that I couldn't couldn't take. So from that record you played for your team
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  to the record that you are excited about and ready to roll with. Now,
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  what is different as you look at it on paper? Right? Song
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  wise? What's different there? And also what's different inside you? This is
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  the weirdest thing, but and it may sound a little strange to people,
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  but it felt like I had an idea of the record I wanted to make,
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  and then these handful of songs. They had another idea of where they
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  were supposed to be and what are the songs they were supposed to be hanging
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  out with. And it was literally like the song said, follow us,
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  just trust it, trust us, We're going to take you somewhere else,
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  and when it's all finished, you'll look at it and go, oh,
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  I get it now. You guys were in the wrong family. You meant
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  to be over here with this family, and this whole family is what I
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  should have been doing all along. Is that the first time in your career
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  you felt that first time ever? Yeah? Really? But I trusted the
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  songs and I trusted the news, and I just went on a complete different
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  river. And when I sequenced the record, it's only eleven songs forty minutes
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  top to bottom. But when I put them all together and figured out the
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  sequence and listen to the record top to bottom four or five times, back
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  to back to back, I just sat there and went it was almost like
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  I'm telling the songs. I get it. Thank you guys, thank you
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  so much for helping me because I was on the wrong path before. Do
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  you ever tell that story to Nicole? And She's like, that sounds crazy,
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  But I'm in. There's nothing that we can tell each other that we
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  think is crazy because we're both artists. Yeah, I mean her job is
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  insane, So I get it. I got my favorite thing, uh is
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  I'll take my kids to a movie. We live down in spring Hill,
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  and so we'll go to a movie. It's an AMC theater and every AMC
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  show starts with your wife right talking about movies. Come along? Yeah right,
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  yeah, and my daughter has seen so many movies in that theater.
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  She recites it work all right, yeah yeah uh and then I send in
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  the car and sing your songs. Thank you. We as of the time
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  this airs, the news just came out that Morgan Wallen is going to have
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  a bar downtown. Now. Literally the news came out two minutes ago.
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  Is that something that is an aspiration for you at any point, because obviously
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  you're totally different artists, but you got Miranda doing that, you got it
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  really all started with Toby Alan Jackson doing doing their own spots. Yeah,
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  is that an aspiration for you at all? Yeah? It's funny. Country
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  music has a history of that because when I first moved to town, everybody
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  had merchandise shops, gift shops. Okay, Like up on the Mumbrian there
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  was like Randy Travis gift Shop, Alabama Gift Shop. Barbara Mandrel had this
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  whole massive building and they sold all the merch, you know, because back
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  in the day, that's that's what you did, and that was like your
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  your trophy was like where's your gift shop? Where's you know, you haven't
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  made it yet, and now it's the bar. Do you have a where's
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  your bar at? You know? If it yeah, if it happened and
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  it felt organic and the right kind of thing, yeah, I wouldn't just
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  slap my name on anything. It would be it would have to make sense
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  and fit in your lane, is it. Have you been approached about it
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  before? Yes, yeah, a few times. But it felt like I
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  was sticking my name on something that didn't feel interesting. Yeah. I get
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  that. They do still sell the merch down on Broadway except this bootlegg and
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  out of the back of my tahoe. There you go. You see,
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  keeping the old spirit alive, right, And that's when it when it comes
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  to obviously, you are if anybody, if I could make a mount Rushmore,
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  I've seen, uh, you would be one of them. As a
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  top show, deep crowd, you make eye contact, you give away,
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  you sign a guitar, you just play it and hand it to the crowd.
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  What does that mean to you? That because you could just stand there
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  and put on a show and move on. But there's a special connection.
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  Is that something you had to learn? And why is it important to you?
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  I like being a part of everybody. I like being connected. I'm
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  there to get connected with them, them with themselves, then with me,
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  all of us to get connected. And maybe it just comes from playing the
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  clubs when I was, you know, a teenager and having to get people's
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  attention because no, I give a crap. They could care less. You
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  know that some dudes up on stage whiling away. They couldn't care less.
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  And see, getting their attention turns you into an entertainer. I used to
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  run to the back of the of these clubs and jump up on the bar
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  and play my guitar as soon as I had a wireless guitar, right because
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  I didn't. I didn't start out on a wireless but when that came along,
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  I'm like, man, let's go, you know, And I'd just
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  run up the back and stand on the bar and shred and it's crazy because
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  that kind of became the b stage out in the arena. But to me,
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  it feels like running up the back of the bar and standing on the
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  bar. It's like that's where it came from. More people and the guitar
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  giving the guitar away. Thing that came from wanting to go to the back
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  and get on a secondary stage. This is long time back in my career,
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  and once YouTube started exploding, everybody knew what you were going to do,
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  so you couldn't. You were like, how do we surprise people at
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  a show because everyone films it and now everyone knows, so there's no surprise.
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  And what I was doing was I was taking off randomly in a song
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  with my guitar and running to the back. You could run through the crowd
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  so quick because they weren't expecting you. Does security know you're doing this so
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  at least they can help you. Usually nobody, because you can run faster
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  on your own. Trust. Yeah, when you get a posse around you,
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  it's hopeless. I ended up out running them anyway. I don't know
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  a lot about running, as you could tell when you're running through a crowd,
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  you kind of moved at a good clip, but I would take off
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  running to get to this stage, and then once everyone knew you were out
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  there, getting back with your guitar was a nightmare because you just everyone's crushing
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  in and my guitar is getting trashed. And I said to my guitar seck
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  Man, I wish I could just leave my guitar out there so that I
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  could run back without it, and he jokingly went, or just give it
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  away, And I was like, that's a fantastic idea. What if I
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  play a different guitar, you give it to me before I run out there,
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  I'll play a few songs on it, and then I'll give it away.
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  You know what I'll do, I'll sign it and give it away.
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  But it was all born of just figuring out how to not have to carry
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  it back to the study. Keith Thurman is not genuine and generous. He's
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  lazy. It's practical. Oh yeah, no's I should use that word instead.
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  But if you're giving away a guitar every night, like you're gonna have
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  to have, this can't be a small venue because the guitars aren't TeaF.
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  So he's like, let's see you're on the floor, so seventy five,
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  seventy five. So you start doing the ticket maat, You're like, yeah,
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  we can give away your guitar. I paid for these guitars because the
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  first time we did it was in some small town I don't know where it
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  was, and I went to a music store and found like one hundred dollars
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  electric guitar and plug it in and you can play a couple of songs on
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  it and shred make it happen. Yeah, and then gave it away,
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  and then I would buy one of the next town on the next time.
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  Then eventually guitar companies came along and said, do you want us to give
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  you these guitars. I'm like, that would really help. Are you still
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  doing the player guitar thing too? You still have that? Yeah? We
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  actually we just popped it up with Yamaham doing a whole line with those guys.
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  Now. So you during your Vegas residency, which was I want to
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  touch on for a second because it was such a cool, unique experience because
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  Tay and I were on the radio in Vegas during that residency, that's right,
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  and I had remembered I remembered saying something and maybe it was you were
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  playing T mobile, but I had brought up the Player Guitar series. I
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  was up in the middle of night with my son and I saw it and
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  I'm like, oh, I've always wanted to learn to play. And you're
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  like, oh, that's awesome, and you kind of pat me on the
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  shoulder and like, you know, get after it if you want to try.
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  Maybe two weeks later I had a guitar sent like and you signed the
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  back and it was like, oh, you know, it was like happy
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  picking or good picking or something like that. And I never played it because
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  you signed it. I didn't want to. But I've watched the DVDs.
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  They're fantastic. So that you didn't play right. You don't want to rub
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  the sigma, shouldn't because it was hard or anything like it is look at
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  these fingers. Put your hand up by mind once. Yeah, No,
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  I'm with you. I'm tough and it's tough man. Yeah. It's not
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  an easy thing to do, but just like anything, you just got to
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  keep doing it, right, I give up easy. I can't. I
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  can't speak any of the language like I so wish I could, but I
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  just can't. I can't. Really, Yeah, wouldn't you like speaking of
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  the language. I failed Spanish in seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade,
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  tenth grade, and I was the only eleventh grader taking introduction into Spanish.
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  Hand to God, this did you eventually get it? See the end?
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  I must see? I wish I would take. My mom would be
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  like, who did you cheat? What? What other languages have you tried
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  to touch? But I'm just saying, like franch or yeah, Spanish or
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  like Italian? It'd be kind of great. I get that. When it
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  comes to downtime, obviously you've had some what's something that you're going to miss?
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  Obviously you went through a tough time struggling with the record, getting it
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  where you needed it to be for you, What did you do in that
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  downtime that you're happy to not do now that the ball's rolling for Keith Urban
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  again? Oh, I don't know. I don't Nothing comes to mind because
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  going home is fun, right, But then all of a sudden, there's
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  a point where you're like, I forgot how much it sucks to put my
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  laundry away when it's up Frost. I miss playing like I have to play.
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  I have to play, And when I got for weeks and weeks and
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  not play it's it's it's I'm a bit I feel off because it's what I
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  do. It's a huge part of what it. I love doing it.
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  So that's the hardest part in making a record is sometimes long periods where there's
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  no gigs. Knowing that your confidence was a little shook with the first offer
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  and you had about a year ago. What makes you confident about Straight Line
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  that you're giving us that like, Okay, I'm confident about this, but
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  this one's going first. The spirit. I think the spirit was there.
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  I just wanted to capture a spirit of who I am and what I do.
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  And I think Straight Line reminded me of the feeling that I hope everybody
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  gets when we play in concert. There's a forgetting life. This is just
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  like hitting this new high, this sort of this place of elation and where
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  everything good and all the craft in your life just disappears and you don't think
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  about it. Straight Line had that feeling about it. The last thing I
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  want to ask you out of all the music you've done, and it can
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  be some deep cut that maybe not a lot of people discovered, or it
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  can be you know, one of your number one songs, what's Keith Urban's
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  favorite Keith Urban song? I haven't written it yet? What? Okay?
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  All right? I had all this too many for different reasons. I mean,
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  I'm really really grateful for so many. I mean, I'm grateful for
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  all of them. Man. I mean, I was playing four four hours
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  a night, five nights a week covers and I'm like, oh, I'd
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  love to do at least one song that's mine that the audience knows and can
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  sing along with. That would be an amazing feeling. I'm gonna be honest
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  with you. We're gonna clip this video tag carry Underwood on Instagram, and
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  when she sees that you didn't say the fighter, y'all gonna be fighting.
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  We just cause a country music friendship. Then I'm kidding, we won't listen
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  to her plans are obviously gonna come right, Yeah, yeah, oh absolutely,
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  I'm kidding. I'll wait, I'll be patient. It's mine. When
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  do you plan on his? Cool? What? What? What's different about
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  this show versus versus other shows? Like? What what are you making sure
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  you get your hands on? I haven't started building it yet. Yeah,
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  you know, but it will have different elements for sure, because it just
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  feels right. The record feels right for that, and some of these songs
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  live are gonna be so fun to play. I can't wait. Yeah.
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  Man, we're excited for the tour, we're excited for the album. We're
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  excited to hang out with you. Thank you, man. I appreciate it,
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  Man, I appreciate it too, Man, Thank you. Thanks Day