-I'm so, so happy you are here.
-Thanks for having me.
-And I want to start by saying there was a moment --
I've been a big fan of your music for long time.
But there was a moment where I felt a real connection
with you that I never felt before which is,
you were on "American Idol" and Kelly Clarkson sang a song,
"Piece by Piece." -Mnh. Yeah.
-And it was -- she cried,
Jennifer Lopez cried,
you cried the hardest. -Well, yeah.
I don't know if the hardest, but --
-Except for me at home watching. -You got it, too.
[ Laughter ] -I cried so hard.
And my wife was making so much fun of me.
-How so? -She was like,
"You're the worst. Anything emotional, you cry."
And I'm like, "Hey, your boyfriend Keith Urban" --
she's a big fan -- "is also crying.
Let me off the hook."
Did you -- did you -- were you aware
as you were listening to that like, "Oh, man, this is on TV."
-Right. It was everything. -Yeah.
-It was the song. It was the situation.
She's pregnant. It's like -- -Yeah.
-It was amazing song. -It was amazing song.
-There's a lot going on in that song.
-Yeah, I was very jealous you got to be there for it because
I thought that was pretty great. -Well, evidentially,
you experienced it at home. -I did. I just want you to know
that we were going through something very similar.
So, hey, you are about to go on a 58-city tour.
-Yeah. -That must be exciting.
-Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
New music and getting out touring.
I love touring. -Is it great?
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah. Yeah.
-How's your -- I know you -- obviously,
you got a couple kids now. You got a family.
Has your touring schedule changed the way you do it?
-A little bit maybe. Go out on the weekends,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sort of three shows.
Maybe a midweek one occasionally.
But I pretty much play shows and go home,
play shows and go home. -Your girls are 7 and 9.
-7 and 9. -It's obviously happening
during the summer, a good chunk of this tour.
Will they -- Do they like to go out?
Is that an age where they like to see you onstage?
-They love the tour bus. -Okay.
-They love the bunks and the whole thing in the bus.
So -- but, you know, I have catering at my shows.
Mom has like craft services at her set.
-Yeah. -So it's always battle
for who's got the better food. -Gotcha.
[ Laughter ] So it's not really like,
"Oh, my God. Our mom is Nicole Kidman.
She's this an amazing actor. And our dad is Keith Urban."
-Definitely not. -They don't care about that?
-No, definitely not. -They're just like,
"Who has the macaroni and cheese?"
-We had -- She was at a show of mine one time.
She must have been 6. A Sunday, she was 6.
And we're backstage and I'm like --
And they had stayed up.
Normally they go to bed early. You know?
So they're up. We go onstage.
And I said, "do you want to come see me play?"
She goes, "Do I have to?"
[ Laughter ]
Just really keeping it real.
-It's also -- I love that what's keeping her from going to
see you at a giant arena is like,
"Dad, it's just -- there is a bus."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Totally. -Yeah like, "I'd love to go.
But I got this bus to do stuff on."
-Absolutely. We played stagecoach
on the weekend and they wanted to hang in the bus
instead of come see Dad play. So I get it.
-Alright, that's alright. -I totally get it.
-I'm glad that happens for all dads.
I'm sure when you have a 7- and 9-year-old,
that's happening around the world.
And your wife, Nicole, sings backup one of the songs
on this album? -Yeah, on "Female." Yes.
-And is it hard to convince her to do that?
-Yes. -Oh, it is? Okay.
[ Laughter ] -Yes.
It will be like trying to get me to do a scene in something.
It's not my comfort level at all.
We have a studio at the house.
And it was just one of those times when I was recording
that song "Female," and I thought,
if there ever was a song for her, that's the perfect one.
And she was home, so -- -Oh, that's great.
-I dragged her down to do it. -So at least there,
that's the privacy of your home.
But you actually got her to come up onstage with you
in Nashville recently. -Reluctantly she did, yes.
-Okay. -And well, what was happened
was, I was talking about this song called
"Parallel Line," which is on my new album and --
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you.
-Got some fans right there.
-So cut a long story short,
wasn't planning on singing the song.
I was playing solo. And I was going to do some other song.
And I'm talking about this song to try and avoid singing it,
this particular song.
And from the back of the people,
I hear this woman go, "Play the song."
You know? And of course, it's Nic.
And I'm like, ugh! You know?
So I thought, "Well, I'll just say to her,
'You come up and sing it with me, and I'll do the song.'
and that would be the end of the song. And I can move on."
And I -- some time went by,
and I saw her slinking slowly up towards the stage.
And she came up. -Oh, that's great.
-To her credit, she came up and played it with me.
-That must have been a real thrill for everybody
in the house that night. -Me most of all, yes.
-What is a recording studio in your house like?
What is the scene like when you go to
Keith Urban's recording studio?
-It's pretty chill. We built the studio with these big windows.
It was supposed to be an underground studio,
which is a whole other story. But it's aboveground,
has big windows, lots of natural light coming in.
And I just -- I feed off that energy really, really well.
This record "Graffiti U" is very buoyant.
It's very up. And I think part of that is from that.
-It would have been completely different album if you had...
-Oh, yeah. -...recorded it underground.
-Yes, underground. Quite literally, yes.
-Yeah. -Yes, yes.