Keith Urban Praises Tourmate Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘Hunger as an Artist’

Kelsea Ballerini is currently on the road with Keith Urban, traveling the country on Urban’s Graffiti U World Tour.

While Ballerini has released two albums and headlined her own Unapologetically Tour, she’s still eager to learn, something Urban shared that he appreciated while speaking to Kix Brooks on American Country Countdown.

“I like Kelsea,” he said, via Nash Country Daily. “I like her spirit. I like people putting good in the world, you know? She’s just got a good light, got a good message, and she’s a really good writer, and I think she’s got that hunger as an artist to keep growing.”

Urban added that Ballerini reminds him of another opener he once had on tour.

“I know when Miranda Lambert came out and opened for us many, many years ago, she’d be at the front every night just watching like a hawk and learning,” the singer recalled. “I was really taken by that. I always remember that. I love those kinds of artists. I mean, that’s what I did. That’s what I still do. I’m still watching and learning all the time. Kelsea’s got that in her.”

There’s one other thing Ballerini has that earned Urban’s stamp of approval.

“She married an Aussie, and I thought, ‘Cool, that’s good enough for me,’” he joked in reference to Ballerini’s husband, Morgan Evans, as Urban also hails from Australia.

In June, Ballerini joked to ABC News Radio that her husband will likely be stopping by the tour for more than one reason.

“[Keith is] his favorite artist,” the 24-year-old said of Evans. “He loves Keith Urban, as do I. And so, I have a feeling that I’ll be seeing him a lot this summer, and I don’t even know if it’s because of me — I think it might be because of Keith.”

“But either way, I’ll take it!” she added.

Urban previously told his record label how excited he was to tour with Ballerini.

“We talked about touring [together before] and not enough of the dates lined up for us to do it, and they just did this time,” he said. “One of those stars lining up moments. I just felt, musically, it’s such a great compatibility of fusion that we both sort of work in. It’s certainly not pure country, neither of us. We obviously grew up with contemporary country influences, pop country influences, and I just felt that it was a great, great collaborative blend of the two of us. I always think about my audiences too and who are they going to respond to, and I think they’ll love Kelsea.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Jeff Kravitz