Grammy Flashback Interview: Keith Urban

Wendy Geller
·Writer, Yahoo Entertainment


With the 59th annual Grammy Awards set to air on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 12, we’re looking back at some of the nominated artists who’ve performed for Yahoo Music. Today, we look back at two interviews from Nashville favorite Keith Urban, who’s seen his share of awards over the years — and is currently up for three Grammys (Best Country Album, Song, and Solo Performance) recognizing his latest album Ripcord and its hit single “Blue Ain’t Your Color.”

It’s easy to see why Urban has long been able to keep the interest of not only a country, but also a pop-oriented audience. Stylistically, he has been able to evolve through (and nail) a variety of sonic ideas over the years, appealing to the ears of fans looking for something new yet familiar from their favorite artist.

To prove this point, Urban has shown off his flexibility during multiple visits to Yahoo Music. In this flashback interview, Urban discusses his Grammy-nominated 2009 album Defying Gravity, which contained the traditionally romantic single “Sweet Thing” — which won Urban his third Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance. “Passion covers everything,” was Urban’s simple explanation of the theme for his set.


However, when approaching his eighth release, Fuse, four years later, Urban followed what he termed “a different sound in my head.” The result was very different from his previous work, but only increased his popularity (in fact, fourth single “Cop Car” was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance in 2015).

As he explained to Yahoo Music at the time, “I think the main challenge for me was always finding the balance between keeping myself open to new ways to go whilst not losing my focus.” This was definitely a challenge for the singer on a purely logistic as well as creative level, since he was juggling the making of the record with his duties as a judge on American Idol that season.

“It’s sort of like if I had a hard-and-fast focus and I knew what was in and what was out, it would have been easier,” he admitted, adding that some of his experiments during the recording process just simply didn’t work out.

However, “So much of this journey was not knowing what’s in and what’s out until I get to it. And some things that might have felt a little jarring to me at first, I needed to let them sit for a while to see if they, you know, started to gel with me. ‘Cause some things don’t feel right immediately. That doesn’t make them wrong. It just means they just need a little time.”