Keith Urban: Country genre has changed
Fox 411 Country talks with country star Keith Urban about country music and he performs his 19th number one hit as our featured song.
Country superstar Keith Urban just released his ninth album, "Ripcord" earlier this month. The record is full of collaborations and some of them unexpected.
The 48-year-old surprised his fans when he teamed up with non-country singer Pitbull for the song "Sun Don't Let Me Down." He explained how the surprising duet came about.
"[I thought Pitbull] would be killer on that song. I think he would really, really love that song. It was just an immediate reaction," Urban explained. "And this record was all about just acting on instinct. So, I didn't know him and [producer] Nile [Rodgers] did, so he sent him the track and thankfully he loved the track and did this crazy verse. It was…killer, and just sort of took the song to a whole other place."
"Ripcord" was all about acting on spontaneity, Urban explained.
"I didn't second guess anything on this record; I just acted on spontaneity and instinct and sort of where the muse would go, I'd just go there," he said. "Even if that was sort of like just wondering off into places only to circle back around and end up where we began, you know. T.S. Elliot has a quote about that, you know, it's sort of to do that full exploration and arrive back where you began, but see if for the first time."
The former "American Idol" judge just finished his final season with the show and is now preparing for his summer tour. He revealed that being on tour is where the excitement is.
"Well that's where it all begins," he said. "I mean recording is a secondary thing to playing live, you know. It's like; the whole concept of recording music is all based on someone already being out playing live and someone capturing that. So it's my first love musically is playing live. It's what I live to do. The energy's fantastic."
The "Ripcord" world tour begins June 2nd.
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