Contemporary-country superstar Keith Urban reflects
on how Waylon Jennings’ indie spirit inspired him more than
20 years ago in Australia, why Mark Knopfler became his first
guitar hero, and how he rehabilitated many of his treasured
vintage axes after the tragic Nashville flood of 2010.
With his scruffy surfer-heartthrob looks, his celebrity lifestyle (he regularly shows
up in paparazzi pics with his wife, actress
Nicole Kidman), and his incredible string of
hits—which includes 15 singles on the US
charts, 10 of which went No. 1—Keith Urban
is one of those success stories that’s so big it’s
hard for serious musicians to take seriously.
But that probably says more about the
skeptics and haters than it does the man
himself. See, although Urban has been a
mainstay on the American contemporary-country scene for the past 12 years or so, he
started slogging it out as a session guitarist in
his native Australia 20 years ago before scoring a record deal with his band the Ranch
in the late ’90s. And though most of us are
used to seeing him singing and wearing an
amazing vintage guitar on a TV program or
BY THOMAS SCOTT MCKENZIE
PHOTOS BY BILL BERNSTEIN
in a Target endcap display, that guitar isn’t
just a stylish pendant. The man is a hardcore
player—and not just of acoustic and electric
guitar: He also plays bass, banjo, keyboards,
mandolin, drums, bouzouki, and sitar.
Given that Urban’s audience is a lot larger
than the world’s population of guitarists, it’s
natural that people focus a lot more on his
singing and songwriting abilities. Reviewers
point out that his recent albums focus primarily on love. His November 2010 release, Get
Closer, is a largely upbeat affair full of happy
songs dedicated to the positive influences of
a solid relationship. He sings about putting
his woman in a tune, taking her for a drive,
loving her since the first day, and savoring the
change she introduces into his life. Gossip
magazine readers quickly assumed these songs
were all about him and Kidman.
However, given Urban’s enviable collection of vintage guitars, these sentiments
could just as easily apply to his love of the
instruments he uses onstage each night.
Many of those axes were tragically damaged during the catastrophic flooding in
Nashville, Tennessee, last year. As a guitarist who felt more like a caretaker of fine
instruments than an actual owner, Urban
was heartbroken when his guitars floated
in dirty river water for days. He and his
team struggled to resurrect the instruments, making the lyric, “Hiding from the
world with a broken wing, But you better
believe you gonna fly with me” particularly
meaningful to this conversation. Currently,
many of those rehabbed guitars accompany
Urban on his 50-plus-city Get Closer 2011
world tour.
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