Keith Urban Teams With Barry Gibb for ‘I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You’

Keith Urban joined his fellow Australian Barry Gibb for a new version of a Bee Gees classic, joining Gibb on his new album Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1, which was released on Friday. Urban appeared on the Bee Gees’ “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You,” joining Gibb for a piano-heavy version of the ’60s hit.

Urban’s voice starts the song, before he’s joined by Gibb, who takes some lines before the two artists harmonize. “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” was released in 1968 and became the Bee Gees’ first Top 10 hit in the United States. The song tells the story of an imprisoned man set to be executed in the electric chair who asks the prison chaplain to share one last message with his wife. Gibb fronted the Bee Gees alongside his late brothers Robin and Maurice, and Greenfields is his foray into the world of country music.

Other artists featured on Greenfields include Miranda Lambert, Jay Buchanan, Dolly Parton, Jason Isbell, Little Big Town, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Tommy Emmanuel, Olivia Newton-John and Brandi Carlile. Dave Cobb produced the album, which was recorded in Nashville.

“On this album, there’s a definite Australian streak, which ranges from Olivia to Keith Urban to Tommy Emmanuel, the guitarist [who features on ‘How Deep Is Your Love’],” Gibb told Entertainment Weekly. “Keith even brought Nicole Kidman with him, which was an incredible thrill, too. It was wonderful. She was a very, very normal person, very sweet.”

Greenfields gives Gibb a chance to showcase his love of country music, something he has been a fan of since childhood. While the Bee Gees are primarily known for their pop and disco hits — though they did write Parton and Kenny Rogers’ iconic duet “Islands in the Stream — Gibb describes himself as a “country music freak.”

“I just felt that country music was really what was inside me,” he said. “[Gibb’s son, musician Steve Gibb] played me a Chris Stapleton track, and it just destroyed me. I thought, ‘This is where I belong… This is a new era, and I’m no longer that other person. I can now follow what I love the most, which is real songs, country songs, bluegrass songs — I just love ’em. It’s time to do what I love and not what everyone asks me to do.’”