Miley Cyrus, consider Keith Urban your No. 1 fan.
“I’ve always loved Miley. I love that voice, man, that voice,” Urban, 56, said during a recent appearance on Nova 96.9’s “Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie” radio show in Sydney. “She sounds like an ashtray. And I mean that as a compliment. She sounds like the carpet at the RSL.” (Common throughout Australia, the Returned and Services League of Australia clubs were established in the 20th century and offer hospitality, entertainment and gambling.)
Urban has been a country mainstay for decades, further noting how many other artists — from Post Malone to Beyoncé — are starting to cross over in the genre.
“Lana Del Rey’s got one coming out, too, that I’ve heard a couple tracks of, it’s amazing,” he said. “I think it’s great. I mean, all this stuff converges at some point.”
Urban added, “Country’s always evolved, shrunk, expanded, shrunk. The only thing that’s changed is that all these pop acts are coming to Nashville to try and get on a collab with someone from country. It’s never happened before.”
According to Urban, it’s a “funny” concert because artists still need to have “the support of the system” in the city of Nashville.
“If you go about it the right way, like Post [Malone] did, you’ll see the love,” Urban says, going on to praise “rootsy [and] authentic” storytellers like Luke Bryan and Lainey Wilson for breaking through the industry into the mainstream. “They’re just legit people and I think a lot of people are sick of the BS [of] what’s real and what isn’t.”
While speaking on the Nova show, Urban took the hosts’ requests to play Cyrus’ Grammy-winning anthem, “Flowers,” as well as tracks by Chappell Roan and Morgan Wallen. The DJs couldn’t believe that Urban eagerly played their requests, jokingly wondering if he does the same for wife Nicole Kidman when they are relaxing at home.
“Sometimes,” Urban teased, joking it’s a “different conversation” if he’s playing guitar while she’s watching a movie.
Urban has been married to Kidman, 57, since 2006 and they share daughters Sunday Rose, 15, and Faith Margaret, 13. (Kidman also shares two adult children with ex-husband Tom Cruise.)
“I’m so lucky that I found it. It’s such an unstable industry and he’s my solace,” Kidman gushed about Urban in a Vogue Australia profile published last month. “Every day we get up in the morning and we go for a walk — and we hold hands. We love holding hands!”
The actress continued, “The greatest advice I was given was there’s the individual — so there’s the me and the you — and there’s the we and that’s only you. No one else has what Keith and I create, [or] any married couple who are partners [have]. We create this, so we decide what this is. If you really like the person, really love them, but really like them, too, god, it helps.”
