Ahead of his highly anticipated summer 2024 tour, Keith Urban took a moment to sit down with Taste of Country for a chat. Reflecting on his journey through the country music scene, the interview took a turn when Urban was asked to recount the day that stands out as his worst. The singer shared an experience from his radio tour days, when he was still a fresh face in the industry.
The incident took place at a radio station where Urban was ushered into a conference room that was already in use for a meeting. Despite the clear mix-up, the station manager pushed him to enter and set up for his performance, leading to an uncomfortable moment for the singer:
“So, I get in there. I open the door, I go in, I go to the corner of this room, I’m lifting my guitar case, and one of the guys at the meeting – there must be about eight people in there – he goes, ‘Uhm, can we help you? Hello?’”
The situation quickly became ‘embarrassing’:
“I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just getting my guitar out.’ He goes, ‘We are having a meeting here!’ And I went red. Just so embarrassed, humiliated. So, I walked back out, and I’m saying to the manager, ‘Just give me my guitar! Just get the hell out of here, man!’ I was so humiliated.”
Despite his wish to bolt from the station, the manager swiftly resolved the misunderstanding, and Urban performed to a group of people, who, in his words, ‘couldn’t care less.’
He Had ‘Embarrassing’ Moments On Stage As Well
The singer’s later years in music saw more interested audiences while he himself thought of ways to get the live crowds focus more on his music. Not all of those ideas went well, though, especially when he once tried to sing on a dark stage to connect with his fans better.
In a chat with Rolling Stone, Urban recalled:
“I had this idea that it would be really cool in a show to do a song completely in the dark in the arena. No one can see me. No one can see anything. I thought, I’ll do it [at] the piano. I’ll light all these candles and I’ll talk to the audience about how much you get overwhelmed with visual stimuli and all this stuff in concerts.”
The plan quickly fell apart, while the singer was explaining it to the crowd:
“And while I’m saying this, I’m starting to blow out a candle. ‘And so I wondered [blows out a candle] if maybe tonight [blows out another one] we could experience what it would be like to just…hear…the…music?’ It’s very dramatic, I put the mic in there…I couldn’t see the keys!”
Reflecting on the fiasco with a sense of humor, he added:
“It was such a mess. And the roadie ran out. He’s got a flashlight over the keyboard and I couldn’t find the mic. We really should’ve rehearsed this. It was hysterical.”
You can watch Keith Urban’s recent interview in the video below.
