Keith Urban says his upcoming UK tour is ‘going to be a blast’

Virgin Radio

28 Apr 2022, 10:15

Four-time Grammy Award winner Keith Urban joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about being back in the UK to play some shows.

Keith’s highly anticipated The Speed of Now World Tour sees the artist playing UK dates for the first time in three years. He told Chris: “I’m just psyched to get up and start playing, and I want to know what songs you guys want to hear. I’m in it with you. It’s going to be a blast!”

The tour kicks off tonight (April 28th) at Birmingham’s O2 Academy, and will also visit Newcastle, Manchester, Bournemouth London, and Edinburgh. The musician said: “We got here five days ago, and started rehearsals up in Doncaster. Up in Donny! And we’re now here in Birmingham.”

When describing the feeling of performing onstage, the singer told Chris: “It’s being completely present and totally lost, in the zone. And that duality is really what it’s about. It’s indescribable. I’ve never surfed, but I always imagine it must be like being in the tube, in the wave.”

He added: “You’re completely present, but you’re also completely lost in the moment. There’s no time. There’s no anything. It’s just now.”

Keith, who has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, told Chris about the first time he ever performed a song live, saying: “I wrote a song when I was about 11, and I called up this radio station and asked the guy if I could sing it to him over the air and he let me do it!

“I’d written a song about not littering!”  

Continuing to speak about his beginnings in music, he said: “I started playing guitar when I was six, and I quit school at 15 and started playing in bands. And that’s it. It’s all I’ve ever done. I’ve played music. I had odd little jobs here and there, but mostly I’ve been lucky enough to play music.” 

Keith recently released his new single, Nightfalls, which was co-written with Greg Kurstin (Beck, Paul McCartney, Adele) and Mozella (Madonna, Rhianna). He told Chris: “At the time I just missed touring. I missed playing live, particularly those outside summer concerts, festivals, things like that. This song was really all about going to that kind of vibe. It opens with the line, ‘We’ve been through some hard times, but I ain’t gonna lie, I don’t wanna think about that, not with you right here tonight.’ That’s what this whole song’s about. It’s about life coming back again.” 

He added: “From what everybody’s gone though in the last two years, this summer is going to feel amazing. It already is.” 

Keith, who is married to actor Nicole Kidman, has been candid about his prior struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. Now sober for over 15 years, he told Chris: “I wound up in bad places, but it’s the contrast of it. It’s what I had to go through to get where I am today that makes it what it is for me, much more so.

“Years before, I sort of numbed myself so I would go around something, over it or under it, but never through it.

“Everyone’s got their own relationship to the struggles that each person listening’s gone through, but I tell you the one thing you need is great people around you, and a purpose, and for me, music has always been that purpose. It’s always been that thing that keeps pulling me through, and something I love, love, love to do.” 

He added: “Anybody that comes to the show is going to see that so clearly.”

Keith’s new single Nightfalls is out now. His Speed of Now tour starts tonight in Birmingham until Monday 9th May in Edinburgh. For tickets, visit keithurban.com.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.