Devin Dawson is singing the praises of Keith Urban. The 31-year-old has been inspired by Keith for much of his life, and continues to remain in awe of the superstar.

“I mean, I think he’s an absolute legend,” Devin gushed on Apple Music Country’s The Ty Bentli Show. “I think anybody that has put out this amount of, this body of work and still continues to evolve … do you know how hard that is over the period of 25 years? A guy coming from Australia, defying, all odds, singing, playing, writing, producing, performing, I mean, I could keep going, but I think you understand. He is a beast….He’s also battled of some of his own demons.

“I think he’s definitely known for those sunny kind of things,” he continued. “He’s got some darker songs, ‘Hard Way,’ obviously, ‘You’ll Think of Me,’ some of these best breakup songs you’ve ever heard. It’s just our job as an artist is to let people in on every single corner of what we go through. That’s I think what he’s trying to do and definitely what I’m trying to do.”

Devin’s debut single, “All on Me,” was released in 2018, and written before he fell in love with his now-wife, Leah Sykes.

“When I wrote ‘All on Me’ I wasn’t actually in love,” Devin shared. “I think when I wrote love songs at that point in my life, it was about where I wanted to be, rather than where I was. It was almost like if you put it out in the world, hopefully it’ll come back to you sort of things. That song, it checked all my boxes. It sounded nice and groovy and upbeat. It had a heartfelt lyric without being weighed down too much. It was a love song. It had these really catchy melodies that get stuck in your head. When I thought about the first song I wanted to go to radio with, it was like, ‘Well, that song has everything.’

“Obviously, once you dig into me as a whole, you realize I can get a little deeper and more vulnerable and darker or whatever,” he added. “It was good to have that song to at least get people going, ‘Ooh, what’s that? I want to listen to more. What else has he got to say?'”

Devin will release The Pink Slip, a six-track EP, on January 15. It is currently available for pre-order at DevinDawsonMusic.com.