Keith Urban's got a new tour, a new show and zero interest in acting

In the nearly 20 years I've been an entertainment reporter, I can count on one finger how many times a celebrity has called me themself — no publicist or agent on the line, no Zoom link setup. Keith Urban changed that one week ago when, as I poured my first cup of coffee, I had the pleasure of picking up the phone to one of country music's biggest stars on the line: "Hey Taryn, it's Keith!"

"Mr. Urban! Hi!" I said, surprised.

"Oh, definitely call me Keith!" he laughed. "Even my dad hated 'Mr. Urban.' I don't think anyone in the Urban lineage has ever liked 'Mr. Urban.' Sounds way too official!"

Urban's breezy, fun and down-to-earth attitude was on display during our 20-minute chat, and he's taking it on the road this summer. Urban kicked off his High and Alive tour on Thursday night in Orange Beach, Ala., eight months after the release of his 11th U.S. studio album, High. And yes, the 57-year-old country music star wants you to feel high and alive — "literally" — when you come and see him.

"It sums up the energy that I like to play with. The energy I want to bring, the energy I want everybody to feel. I'm not a sort of sit-down contemplative, pensive kind of artist. I love firing everybody up and bringing everybody together," he told Yahoo Entertainment. "We're high and alive in '25, it's just tailor-made."

Urban's had 16 No. 1 Hot Country songs, with hits like "Blue Ain't Your Color," "Long Hot Summer" and "Somebody Like You." Although he's been busy building what he likes to call a "playlist," not a setlist, for his upcoming shows, Urban had a surprising response when asked about his approach to this tour.

"It's crazy, I've always been wired to be very — I don't have any sense that I've done anything," Urban said.

To be clear, the New Zealand-born Australian singer has accomplished more than most in his three-decade career. He's won four Grammys, 12 Country Music Awards (including Entertainer of the Year twice) and 15 Academy of Country Music Awards and has sold out arenas all over the world. The list goes on. Hasn't done anything? I let him explain what he means.

"I'm highly aware that I've done a lot of tours and I've made a lot of albums," he laughed. "I get all of that, but I don't think about it. Everything is just very now."

Urban said preparing for High and Alive made him realize he's as driven now as he was when he released his self-titled stateside debut album in 1999. "Even when we went down to rehearsals a couple of weeks ago and I had a massive whiteboard on the stage as I was chipping away at shaping a playlist, it felt like my first tour," he explained.

It's been three years since Urban last hit the road with his band, and while his 2024 hit song "Messed Up as Me" made the playlist, there are several others he broke out for the first time, including covers of Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s "I Had Some Help," plus Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club." He also covered New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" during his encore. Embracing this "blank canvas" feeling means he has no preshow rituals or superstitions.

"I got a lot of new band members. It's a new stage, it's a new production, so there's more things new about it than there isn't. I just feel a sense of freshness and excited energy to get out and play and see what works, what doesn't work, what we have to move and shape, and just be in the moment with the audience," he said. "It always feels brand-new to me."

While Urban is embracing a "blank canvas" professionally, his personal life is happily colorful. In June, he and his wife, Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, will celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary. Urban gave his family, including daughters Sunday, 16, and Faith, 14, a sweet shout-out earlier this month when he was honored with the Triple Crown Award at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Urban considers himself a family man, which is something his fans deeply connect with. Being away from home and on the road, though, is something he and Kidman are used to. When asked if they have any two-week rule, or they have a maximum amount of time they can go without seeing each other, Urban said no.

"I've never believed in rules," he said. "It's gotta be a want, you know? And I don't want to be away from my family for too long, so I don't need a rule. I'm really lucky that I get to tour the way I do, which is kind of three shows in a row, and then three to four days off. Then three shows in a row. It's pretty rare to even be gone for two weeks. It's fortuitous where Nashville is [located] in that it's a fairly decent flying time to a lot of places."

Urban thrives on connecting with his audiences to take them on an unforgettable ride. Part of the reason he has such a passionate fan base isn't just because of the songs themselves, but because of his songwriting, which touches on themes like love, loss and redemption. His self-reflective lyrics typically mirror where he's at in his phase of life.

"I think I've gone from writing about things I'd like to experience to being able to write from experience," he explained when I asked how his songwriting has evolved.

"A lot of my early songs were imagining what it would be like to have a particular feeling, to be a particular person because I wasn't that person but wanted to be," he continued. "These songs probably just have more depth to them. And there's just more things to write about. It doesn't have to be family, it's just experience. It's losing parents. It's friends who have been in your life for a long time. Moving. Things changing in life. New seasons. Chapters coming to a close, and new ones opening that are equally as exciting, if not more so."

Urban categorizes his current chapter as "unfolding." Given all he has on his plate in 2025, that seems fitting.

This fall, Urban will headline the new country music competition series The Road on CBS. Unlike other singing competition shows, this one puts aspiring singers straight on tour, as contestants will join Urban onstage this summer and trade off opening for him. The series, which doesn't have a premiere date as of yet, is executive produced by Blake Shelton and Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan.

This isn't Urban's first stint on reality television: He was a judge on American Idol from 2013 to 2016 and on the inaugural season of Australia's The Voice in 2011. When asked if he's taking any learnings, good or bad, from those experiences to The Road, he said it's wildly different.

"I don't know if I took any specific things from those other shows other than — because this show is not really, not like those in so many ways," he explained. "It's quite extraordinary what Blake and Taylor envisioned for this thing. To put it back into this real-world environment — being in clubs where you don't have hair, glam, a stylist and all this noise and nonsense. You've got your talent, your drive, your ambition and you've got a stage and a house band. You've got two songs, one original and one cover, and you've gotta grab this audience that hasn't come to see you. This audience has come to see me play at the end of the night, and you gotta grab 'em."

Urban said the "do or die" feeling is really what it's like when you start out in the music industry.

"I came from another country. Having the odds stacked against you is something I've spent my life having to continue working through," he added. "I'm not comparing my journey to anybody else's. It's just aspiring to be the best you can always be, staying curious, passionate, hungry and never giving up. Staying the course is always key, and in the end, I think it works."

Urban also had a blast working with Shelton, who he called a "unique guy." "I love being around his energy. He's just funny," he said.

As for Sheridan, who is known for creating the Yellowstone universe, Urban admires his talent — but has no interest in throwing on a pair of ranching boots.

"Absolutely not," Urban said. "I've never had any interest in acting. I just bought a studio here in Nashville because that's my passion. I don't have any hobbies. I just love playing music. I love being in the studio. I love creating, I love recording."

For what it's worth, there's zero pressure from his wife to get on set. Kidman recently said in an interview that she and Urban have no desire to work together. ("We're together in life, so we don't need to do our show together," she told People. "Our life is a show.")

"I've been on enough sets now to know that that's absolutely not anything I ever want to do," Urban laughed. "It's not for me!"

Right now, it's curiosity in the studio that's fueling the artist.

"That's literally what powers me forward and drives me and has always driven me, is curiosity about writing songs, playing, putting on a show, connecting with an audience," he said.

"I don't know if you can cook, but I can't cook," Urban continued, "but I realize that's what I do in my head. I hear ingredients, and I imagine what those things together might taste like to my ears. Having a studio now gives me the chance to really explore those kinds of opportunities to blend things that I hear and see what goes together. ... I'm constantly curious to explore musical art, which [is what] my life is."