At some point when you weren’t paying attention Keith Urban became one of the top 20 country artists of the past 25 years.
The New Zealand-born country-rocker has earned 12 No. 1 hits and three No. 1 albums since 2000, when he broke through with “Your Everything.”
The shaggy-haired singer-guitarist, 43, might still be better known to some as Nicole Kidman’s husband and dad to two toddlers, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.
But music fans revere Urban for his pop-spiked country songs that detail heartbreak and romance (“You’ll Think of Me,” “Making Memories of Us,” “Once in a Lifetime”) and breezy fun (“Where the Blacktop Ends”), as well as his unassuming attitude.
Urban checked in from the road recently on his “Get Closer” tour -- in support of his most recent album of the same name.
Q. You’re doing two nights here. Why do you think Atlanta has been a particularly good market for you?
A. I’m not sure why, but I’m thrilled that we seem to make music that people want to experience live. I have some friends in Georgia, too. The song called "Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me" is about me driving from Georgia to Tennessee. Georgia is probably my favorite state name out of all of them -- there’s certainly been plenty of songs written about it! And "Georgia Woods," that song is written about a real thing that happened in upstate New York, but Georgia just sounded better.
Q. You’re really into fan interaction on this tour between the cellphone promotions and the stage production.
A. The big thing for me the last few tours is playing off the audience and getting rid of the barriers. ... I never understood why we needed these big security fences. I wanted this show to be more like playing in a club, so the stage is right there and people can put their hands on it. The object of this tour is for people to have a good time.
Q. Have you had any security problems so far?
A. The only security problems are them not letting people near the stage! I had to poke one with a mic stand the other night. I guess he didn’t get the memo that I want people as close to the stage as possible. It wasn’t his fault -- he was just doing his job. But we have meetings before the show and security is told very clearly that we want people near the stage. When you play a club, the electricity from the audience when it’s right at the foot of the stage is amazing. But when they’re 20 feet away on this big no-man’s land of a concrete floor in an arena, I find that draining.
Q. Is this tour being filmed for a DVD?
A. We’ve talked about it, but I’m not sure if we’re going to do it on this tour.
Q. Your shows are always high-energy affairs. How do you stay in shape?
A. The show itself is an intense workout. I do have a trainer to do stuff during the day. Our last tour was about two hours long and I said I wanted to cut them back a little bit this time. But we have 25 top five songs. If we don’t want to leave any out and do the new record songs, in the end I wound up making it longer because it’s about two hours and 15 minutes now! [laughs] That’s the cruel irony -- the older you get, the longer your shows get.
Q. You’re on the road for a long time. How do you stay sane?
A. I don’t really go out for weeks and weeks anymore. I’ll do three shows in a row, then go home for a couple of days. I’m in and out of Nashville all the time. The longest I’m gone is five days. Even if I’m just home for a day, it’s great to wake up in our own bed and get the girls up.
Q. How is fatherhood going?
A. It’s a work in progress, as any working parent will tell you. Some days I’m feeling the strain of the relentless travel, but now it’s fun to go home. That’s something I used to dread -- the days off. What’s great now is that I’m not coming out on the road to escape anything, I’m coming out because I want to play.
Q. Your press photo was taken by John Mayer. How did that happen?
A. We're friends, socially, and have done a few shows together. We were doing a show at the Gorge in Washington and I was onstage rehearsing. John is an avid photographer and he came onstage during sound check and I jokingly did this back-bend thing and he snapped it. The next day he sent it to me with some blue tinting and I was like, wow, mate, this really captures what we do live.
Concert preview
Keith Urban with Jake Owen. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4-5. $25-$55. Gwinnett Arena, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.
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