Keith Urban Recalls His ‘Tragic’ First Visit to Nashville

Keith Urban was already making a name for himself in Australia when he became lured by the country music scene in Nashville. Although Urban went on to become one of the biggest hitmakers in country music, his beginnings didn’t indicate stardom in his future.

“1989 was the first year I came to the States, and it had always been my goal, but I had no plan on how to get here,” Urban recalled. “It was just a case of keep playing, keep getting better at what you do, and then hopefully, somehow, some way I’ll end up over here. The guy who was managing me at the time, we just planned a trip over here – it was actually for the New Music Seminar in New York.

“And we came over for that, and then we did a trip down to Nashville, and I was shopping my little demo around,” he continued. “I think I humored everybody more than anything else [laughs] with my tragic, ill-fitting demo for the time. So, I left there, but I was just so committed to coming back as quick as I could.”

In 1992, Urban made the permanent move to Music City, although it took him a while to actually admit he was leaving Down Under for North America.

“I would write, and I would stay at a hotel,” Urban shared of his early trips to Nashville (quote via The Boot). “A guy named Greg Kane, who was an engineer at MCA Publishing, said, ‘Come stay at my house. It will be much easier than staying in a hotel.’ So the next trip, I stayed at his house, and I brought clothes and sort of left them there. And on the next trip, I brought more clothes and left them there. Slowly I sort of moved in.”

It took two years before Urban was finally settled in to becoming a resident of the state of Tennessee.

“I was excited to be leaving things at his house, because it made me feel like I lived in Nashville, which is all I wanted to do,” Urban added. “That’s why it’s always been hard to put a timeline on when I moved to Nashville, because I was moving in since 1990. I finally had the last of my stuff here by 1992.”

In 1997, Urban released his debut album, The Ranch, on Capitol Records. But it wasn’t until his self-titled sophomore album, released two years later, that Urban had a radio hit, first with “It’s a Love Thing,” and “Your Everything,” followed by “But for the Grace of God,” which was his first No. 1 single. Still, it wasn’t an easy path for Urban, who turned to drugs and alcohol to ease his anxiety and nerves.

“Definitely, there were times when I didn’t know what else to do, through the mid- to late ’90s, which, not coincidentally, was my first trip to Cumberland Heights [rehab center], in 1998. Because I didn’t know how to cope, I didn’t know what else to do, I didn’t have the structure or support,” Urban explained. “When you’re doing your best and it’s not working, I’m not quite sure what to do next, because I felt like, I’m doing my best, I’m not sure what else to do, other than keep doing it and wait for something to break.”

Urban continued to have hits – and to battle sobriety – through the first part of the new millennium, finally becoming sober for good in 2006, after his wife, Nicole Kidman, urged him to get help four months after their wedding. Now, more than 25 years after relocating to the United States, the 50-year-old still returns with his family to Australia, finding home in both places – a sentiment that is reflected on his current single, “Coming Home.”

“I was out in LA, working with Julia Michaels,” said Urban. “We were talking about why you need to come home, physically, sometimes. And she said, ‘Well I know it’s only one call away, but it’s not the same.’ I was so taken by how simple that line is, how just incredibly simple it is, and yet that summed up the entire song’s spirit right there.”

Urban is currently on his Graffiti U World Tour. Find dates at KeithUrban.net.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Dia Dipasupil