Keith Urban and Julia Michaels Share Mutual Respect

Keith Urban and Julia Michaels might be each other's biggest fans. The two, who collaborated on Urban's current "Coming Home" single, have a mutual respect and admiration for each other, which seems to be growing stronger with time.

"I heard her EP [Nervous System] a while back," Urban recalls. "She put out a song called 'Issues,' and I loved it, and then I got her EP and there's maybe just seven or eight songs on it, but I literally loved every single song on that record, and I thought I just [had] to figure out if I can write with her someday."

Urban connected with Michaels, writing "Gemini" with Justin Tranter and Ian Kirkpatrick, which is included on Graffiti U, but the Aussie was so impressed with Michaels talent, he reached out to her for "Coming Home" as well.

"I just wanted some more color on finishing out the song, so I called in Julia and she helped me finish it out and then sang on the bridge," Urban says. "We got to do it at the ACMs, and that's the first time we'd ever played that song in front of an audience. It was a little nerve wracking."

Michaels already had success before meeting Urban, penning songs for artists like Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani and more. But when she had the chance to write with Urban, she found herself in awe of his talent.

"Writing with Keith is amazing," boasts the 24-year-old. "Keith has so many ideas, and the fact that he can literally hop on the guitar and play something so effortlessly or hop on the banjo and play that just as effortlessly, and melodically so in tune with himself. All the lyrics have to matter to him. Everything has to mean something to him, and that's really important when it's your song and it's your voice and it's your music. You have to make sure that it's you, and he does and it's really cool to watch."

"Coming Home" was inspired by Merle Haggard's classic "Mama Tried," and became the cornerstone for Graffiti U.

"For me, 'Coming Home' as a song and a single really sets the tone of the album," Urban says. "The elements that I wanted to somehow all weave together, as a song and also as a record too, turning it into a record, for me came together on 'Coming Home.' So sonically it represents what the record is about, diversity on the record, sonically, and then thematically it's very much my journey. It really feels like my life in a lot of ways."

Download "Coming Home" on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Ethan Miller