Keith Urban's 'Graffiti U' Title Inspired by His Loyal Fans

Keith Urban's Graffiti U album will be released on Friday, April 27. The title, Urban explains, was inspired by the message he hopes his fans take away from all 13 songs on Graffiti U.

"The previous two albums I did – Fuse and Ripcord – denoted a kind of energy, and so those titles were chosen for that," Urban explains. "And I had some energy-driven titles in mind for this album too, but as the record started to reveal itself to me, the word 'graffiti' kept coming to me out of the blue. I've always loved that word, loved the sound of the word, and then I loved the fact that it's art-driven.

"When I think of graffiti, I think of self-expression, personal expression, absolutely personal expression, whether you're painting something on the side of a building in a city or whether you're painting 'Billy Bob Loves Charlene' on the side of an overpass," continues Urban. "It's all graffiti and it's all free and pure and very personal, and I thought this record feels like that to me."

Once the New Zealand native decided on the word "graffiti," he wanted to make the title something that showed his appreciation for the people who buy and listen to his music.

"I didn't like the word on its own," Urban says. "It felt like it needed one more thing, and I thought, 'Well, it's for the audience. It's for the listener. That's what I do this for.' It's what every artist does it for. I said the other day, 'If an album played in the forest, would anyone ever hear it?' [laughs] So, the audience is key. The listener is the other half of it. And I thought 'You! It's You are the audience.' So, Graffiti You felt really good, and when I wrote it down, I thought, 'Well, it shouldn't be Y-O-U. It should be just the letter U to really personalize it.'"

Urban will kick off his Graffiti U Tour on June 15, where he is excited to see the new songs come to life.

"The great part about me finishing an album, always, especially with Graffiti U, is getting these songs out on the road, which we're about to do," says Urban. "So many songs on this record are built for playing live. There's an electricity about them. And it's going to be great to see them stretch out, and morph into other things live. I can't wait."

A list of all of the shows on Urban's upcoming Graffiti U Tour can be found on his website. Pre-order Graffiti U on Amazon and iTunes.

Photo Credit: Instagram/keithurban