Keith Urban: Snapshot

Keith Urban: Video

Keith Urban: Five Fun Facts

1. Keith Urban faced his parents' wrath at age seven when he painted his band's name on the garage door of their house.
2. As a boy in Australia, Keith Urban learned to play the ukulele and milk the family's cows. "I wasn't very good at it," he told PEOPLE.
3. Keith Urban's exposure to early Glen Campbell records may have given him a more authentic country voice than his American peers. "Keith is the twangiest singer on our roster," Capitol Nashvile president Mike Dungan told Entertainment Weekly in 2005. "The comment we sometimes get from international territories is 'Can you get him to re-sing it without the twangy inflections?'"
4. Keith Urban says his four tattoos – "love," a thunderbird, an eagle and "Love conquers all" in Latin – "are little signposts along the way."
5. As the younger of two brothers, Keith Urban's nickname growing up was "Suburban."

Keith Urban: Biography

1971

Kiwi to Aussie

Urban and his family move from Whangarei, New Zealand, to the Australian farming town of Caboolture, which he will later refer to as his hometown. As a kid, he develops a passion for music and at 15, drops out of school to pursue his career.

1992

G'Bye, Mate

After scoring four No. 1 country singles in Australia in 1991, Urban moves to Nashville, Tenn. "I know I would be a little fish in a big sea, but that's the appeal," he tells Australia's Sunday Mail. While there, Urban struggles for years and develops a cocaine addiction. "I remember crawling around on my hands and knees, looking for these little rocks at 5 in the morning, and I was drenched in sweat. It was the worst," he tells USA Weekend. In 1998, he checks into Cumberland Heights, a treatment center in Nashville.

1999

October 19

Urban Development

Finally getting himself together, Urban releases his first U.S. solo album, the self-titled Keith Urban. He writes three and cowrites six of the album's 12 songs, including "But for the Grace of God," which hits No. 1 on the American country charts in early 2001.

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