KEITH URBAN 

Legend has it at the dawn of the 1990’s guitar whiz Tommy Emmanuel was on a outbound Brisbane plane to Sydney when fate sat him next to Keith Urban. The years of playing in cover bands or Rusty And The Ayers Rockets were already behind him. Keith had cut his self titled debut album for EMI in 1991. Tamworth were paying attention, but the big stages and the recognition he craved was elusive. Emmanuel advised him to pack his bags and head to Nashville. Keith took the advice and, with his band The Ranch in tow, they paid the bills by doing everything from mowing lawns to playing session gigs. In Nashville Keith earned songwriting cuts on records by Toby Keith, 4 Runners and the Rayon Brothers. Back in Brisbane, we saw Keith’s name as a guitarist pop up on the Dixie Chick’s album, Fly. 

He was on his way. The American’s recognised Keith’s unique talent and the world followed suit. 

The hot guitar slinger who once played marathon sets at Mary Street was headed towards international stardom. Critical acclaim and commercial sales followed. The boy from Caboolture was having early hit singles with ‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘Stupid Boy’ and ‘You Look Good In My Shirt’. By 2004 he was enjoying Top 5 albums sales in the USA with Be Here (2004), Love Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing (2006) and Defying Gravity (2009). in 2019, the golden run hasn’t showed any signs of slowing. Graffiti U hit the #2 spot on the US album charts in April 2018. A natural collaborator, Urban has recorded with the everyone from Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow to Nile Rodgers and PItbull. When Keith comes back to Brisbane he usually plays multiple nights at the Entertainment Centre. He hasn’t forgotten where he came from. On show days he can be found trawling local guitar shops, occasionally adding a guitar pedal to his credit card bill for a starry eyed kid that happened to say ‘hello’.