Keith Urban
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this definitive biography of Keith Urban, music biographer Jeff Apter presents the legendary Australian country star turned international superstar whose career spans the Nashville music scene, American Idol, The Voice, and much more, including the highs and lows along the way.
Keith Urban came from humble origins. His father worked at the local landfill and Keith was a high school dropout. But Keith had a plan: conquer Nashville. “It’s my destiny,” he said. And Keith was hell-bent on scaling that musical Everest. Whatever it took.
It didn’t come easy. Keith served his apprenticeship in the beer barns of Australia, and his early trips to America were disastrous. But he never gave up, settling in Nashville in the 1990s and forming The Ranch. When the band fell apart, so did Keith, ending up in rehab (not for the last time). But Keith did eventually reach the top, through a combination of talent, charisma, sex appeal, dogged perseverance—and skin thick enough for a rhino. And along the way he married Nicole Kidman.
As Keith has said, “All those detours, the really dark ones, got me to where I am now. I would not want to change one leaf on any tree in the whole journey.”
Keith Urban is the definitive biography of an international superstar.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biographer Apter (Bad Boy Boogie) painstakingly traces Keith Urban's rise from modest Australian roots to country music fame, his drug-filled detours on the way there, and his ever-evolving musical style. The son of a "country music devotee," Urban was raised on a "love for the American dream and nursed a desire "to be the guy in the spotlight" after attending a "life changing" Johnny Cash concert at age five. Following stints singing and dancing on youth talent teams, Urban released his eponymous debut album in 1991 and moved to the U.S. the following year. Acclimating to the American music industry proved challenging, partly because his rock-inflected style made him a "square peg in the well-rounded country mainstream." When a 1997 album with his band, The Ranch, flopped and put a "comet-sized dent in his confidence," Urban sunk further into the booze and drug habit that had started when he'd moved stateside. After landing in rehab in 1998, Alcoholics Anonymous's 12 steps became his "guiding lights," and he found success as an opening act for country music stars, including Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, before winning the Academy of Country Music's Top New Male Vocalist award in 2001 and appearing as a judge on American Idol. Apter meticulously captures the music industry hurdles Urban overcame on his way to success, and gives credit to his "single-channelled drive and stickability." Urban's fans will devour this deep dive.
