Keith Urban in Awe of ‘Unbelievable Depth and Commitment’ by U.S. Navy SEALs

Keith Urban might have been born in New Zealand, but he is still proud to live in America. The singer-songwriter penned a song, “For You,” for the movie, Act of Valor, which was based on a true story about the U.S. Navy SEALs.

“They have a mantra, and they say ‘The only easy day was yesterday’ and they had this spirit of brotherhood,” Urban recalls. “That’s a particular thing that’s the way in which, I think, it exists is very specific to the SEALs. I mean, military in general have this very strong brotherhood code; it’s a particular kind of thing in the SEALs. As was the testament, to Lt. Roark who is the lead guy in the film; when he was interviewed, he talked about funerals he had been to, and he says ‘There isn’t really any one of us who isn’t just a little bit jealous of the guy who’s died.’

“[When] I heard that, that’s a particular way of being that I cannot relate to,” continues Urban. “That is an unbelievable depth of commitment and conviction.”

Urban is spending the summer on the road on his Graffiti U World Tour, where he hopes to connect with fans all over North America, especially since his Graffiti U album was written with them in mind. After first coming up with the word, “Graffiti,” the latter part of the record was solely because of those who have been supportive of his sometimes eclectic career.

“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.’”

Graffiti U, out last month, was fueled by the direction of the project.

“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.”

Urban will kick off his Graffiti U Tour on June 15. Dates can be found by visiting his website.

Photo Credit: Facebook/keithurban