Keith Urban Gave Eric Church a Vintage Guitar for Christmas

Keith Urban is known for his skills on the guitar, so it only makes sense that he’d want to share that love with other like-minded individuals — hence why he gave Eric Church a guitar for Christmas last year. During an appearance on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen on Apple Music Country, Church opened up about the gesture, sharing that Urban sent him a 1933 Martin.

“You know what’s interesting? Keith Urban sent me a 1933 Martin for Christmas,” he said. “This Christmas. I came back and it was underneath the tree and I was blown away. He was thanking for the ‘We Were’ song that we had. Unbelievable. I came back from Christmas, underneath the tree and he had a letter with it. I was just, I was floored, was totally floored.”

“We Were” was written by Church, Ryan Tyndell and Jeff Hyde and was released as a single by Urban in May 2019. He later included it on his 2020 album The Speed of Now Part 1 as well as a new version of the song with Church.

“As soon as I found out he was a writer, the first thing I wanted to do is I wanted to hear him sing that song,” Urban previously told his record label. “‘Cause in my head I heard it top to bottom, so I called him and I said, ‘Would you come in some time and do a version?’ At the end of the summer, he came by and spent a couple of hours at Sound Emporium Studios. Just hearing him sing the song and do his own thing to it — changing all the phrasing, changing the melody, the odd lyric changing.”

“I sat there and watched him sing it several times back to back, and he never did it the same way twice …ever,” he continued. “And I said to him, ‘You change it every time.’ He goes, ‘Yeah. Why would I do the same thing twice?’ It’s just the way he rolls, [and] it’s because he’s a storyteller. He’s an amazing songwriter; one of the best in town period, and he’s a great storyteller.”

The Australian star added to PopCulture.com and other media that he initially didn’t know Church was a writer on the song. “It’s unusual for me to not know [the writers], but I got sent the song, and he wasn’t singing the demo,” Urban recalled. “And I just loved the song so much that I learned it by ear. I didn’t get a lyric sheet or anything, and I knew it. I just knew it, knew it. And went in and recorded it and worked out. And then the next thing I know we’re doing label copy for all the credits and everything. And so I said, ‘Oh, I guess they should send me the lyrics to make sure I sang all the right ones.’ When they sent it, that’s the first time I saw the three writers’ names,” he continued. “And I saw a Church up there, and I’m like, ‘No way. No way.’”