Keith Urban: The Song That Changed His Career
Keith Urban will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame tonight (10/11) at their annual gala in Nashville. Keith will be inducted alongside Kix Brooks, David Lee Murphy, Casey Beathard, and Rafe Van Hoy, and he couldn’t be more honored to be included in the Class of 2023.
Urban told us recently that it’s “impossible” to pick a favorite song he’s written since he’s written thousands, but he can point to specific songs that have changed the course of his career.
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He said of one of those career-changing songs, “I would have to look at something like ‘Somebody Like You’ as one of the most important songs for me that happened and to a large degree, just sent my career into a whole different speed in a really wonderful way. Of course, you know, there’s hundreds of songs I’ve written that led up to that one getting written, and it’s just magic. It’s magical how that song got written.”
He continued, “I wrote it with a guy called John Shanks, who I’d never met, and I was nervous showing up that morning to write that song. And he had a little drum loop happening, and I happened to bring my six-string banjo. I pulled it out of the case, and the first thing that I played was that opening riff of the song, and I started singing a melody, and the words started coming fairly quickly, and it was one of those pretty easy-to-write songs. I think it’s just where I was in my life at the time, too.”
Keith added, “It really captured probably more of the person I wished I could be. I wasn’t that person in the song, but I wanted to be, and I felt I was getting close to being that person. So, it’s a truthful song. It came from a truthful place, and I’m still incredibly grateful for it. I can’t imagine doing a show and not doing that song, and I feel really grateful that I love it. I love it as much today as the day I wrote it.”
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