Keith Urban on Springsteen, Taylor Swift and his new album “High”

Country legend Keith Urban is a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, but he had no idea how deeply his journey would impact him Springsteen on Broadway a few years ago. When Springsteen described a dream in which he told his father that he embodied him as a performer: “Look, Dad. That guy on stage? This is how I see you,” Urban was amazed. “I just sat there and held back tears so hard,” he recalls in the new episode Rolling Stone Music Now. After the show, Urban and his wife, Nicole Kidman, were scheduled to go backstage. “I told Nic, ‘I can’t go back there. We have to go. We went outside, sat in the car, and I cried like a baby. Damn, he hit a nerve in me. I couldn’t go backstage.”

For Urban, the moment inevitably recalled his strained relationship with his father, a high-functioning alcoholic whose passion for American country music inspired his son’s journey from Australia to Nashville and his entire subsequent music career. “Break the Chain”, the highlight of Urban’s powerful new album, Tallwas written in a similar emotional outburst, drawing on this relationship and the opportunity to escape generational cycles. “Man, this fucking song just came out of me,” he says.

In an extensive interview about the new episode Rolling Stone Music NowUrban details the work on his new album, the art of playing lead guitar, his time on tour with Taylor Swift, and much more. Below you will find the most important information; to listen to the full interview, go here to select your podcast provider of choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or simply press play above.

Urban saw Taylor Swift’s potential when she opened for him in 2009. “Who she is now is who she was when she opened up to me,” says Urban. “Her vision looked far into the future… She sees where she will be with crystal clarity. And that’s what helped her cross so many waters that would kill any other artist. So much negativity, so much hate from people, so much, God, it’s just bullshit that people were throwing at her everywhere, but she was clearly looking to the future and her abilities. And what I love about Taylor is that she was always willing to face her inabilities and work on them. She worked on being a better singer. She worked on being a better actress. She has always been a great writer. She worked on it all… getting better, better and better.

He admires how his friend John Mayer found a side gig with guitar in Dead and Company and would love to do something similar. “I love John and I love it,” he says. “I first saw it when Peter Frampton toured with Bowie on the Glass Spider Tour. I remember thinking, this is great. He doesn’t have to do any press, no meet and greets. He just stands there and plays guitar all night long. That would be so damn funny. I definitely felt like doing it at some point in my life. Just go out and tour as a guitarist in someone else’s band. I would love that. I know if I didn’t have to run it would improve my game a lot!”

One of the most exuberant songs on his new album, “Laughing all the Way to the Drank,” began as a jam session. “Every time I came back to it, I was like, man, this thing looks damn good,” Urban says. “So I called the great songwriter, Ben Burgess, and said, ‘What do you think about when you hear this music?’ And he said, “Well, man, it’s like, I don’t know, laughing all the way to the bank.” And I said, “What about laughing until you drink?” And then we went to write a song.”

He wanted his new album to reflect the atmosphere of his favorite music from the nineties, Perhaps you too have been brainwashed — the only New Radicals album. “The records I’ve made that I’m happiest with are the ones that have a casual feel to them,” he says. “One of the records I keep coming back to was the New Radicals record. I recently listened to it again and thought, “Why do I love this record so much?” He realized it was a mix of tight pop songs with looser, more stream-conscious songs. “The whole album beautifully balances between order and chaos. And I hope that’s what my records ended up looking like, it was a mix of order and chaos – you know, compared to what I do.”

He has enjoyed some of the recent country crossovers and is looking forward to Lana Del Rey’s country album. “I think Lana’s album interests me the most,” he says. “Because she’s one of the few artists that I think will bring the (country) elements so beautifully and make it a fresh Lana Del Rey record that’s not a cookie-cutter record in any way.”

He never felt comfortable wearing a cowboy hat. “Yes, and I have to remind people,” he says, “Johnny Cash didn’t wear one. George Jones didn’t wear one. Charley Pride didn’t wear one. Merle Haggard didn’t wear one. Glenn Campbell didn’t wear one. I will keep going through the list!” On a personal note, he tried it when he first moved to Nashville. “I quietly tried on a few hats at home in my bedroom. I’m not that guy. I have to be who I am.

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