Keith Urban surprised fans when two of his longtime band members revealed they had been let go, The decision was especially surprising since it came ahead of Urban’s long-awaited High and Alive World Tour, which kicks off on May 22 in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Urban is now opening up about that decision, revealing why he made the unexpected change, which also came before the second half of his HIGH in Vegas residency.
“I’ve always just followed the inner voice that says it’s time to make a change, in any area of my life, and sort of just leap. Just take the leap,” Urban shared with Everything Nash and other outlets, during a recent media event. “I don’t always know where I’m going. It’s a little bit like playing live on stage. I don’t always know what I’m going to do next. There’s something exhilarating about living that way, and about performing that way.
“Again, we’ve been really lucky with this band,” he continued, “because we’ve got these five shows in February in Vegas that we got to do as a new band, and get some shows under our belt, before we get into rehearsals for our tour. I’m really looking forward to getting out with the new band, new songs, new production, new everything.”
When Urban was still putting his new band together, the New Zealand native admitted his band was still a work in progress.
“I’m in between a typical band structure right now, where I haven’t put together the band for the tour yet,” Urban explained on Q with Tom Power. “I dismantled the band I had, and I’m rebuilding a new one, but I haven’t built it yet, and we had a club show that came before I had a chance to build my band. So we had a fill-in drummer last night, and my keyboard player played bass, kind of like The Doors. We didn’t have a bass player … but I had to keep reminding him to go for it, because we’d be playing a song, and I’d go, ‘Where’s the low end?’ and I realized the keyboard player has forgotten he has to play bass too.”
“I love that, because it just reminds me to make sure the bones are good in everything,” he added. “In the songs, in the band, in my playing, make sure the bones are good, and then I’m not leaning on other things.”
New band members aside, Urban is especially eager for his High and Alive World Tour, which marks his first tour since his 2022 The Speed of Now World Tour.
“I’m just always ready to go,” Urban shared. “We haven’t toured in three years, since we’ve done a full proper tour. And that’s long for me. Typically it’s been every couple of years. So it’s probably why I’m extra jones-ing to get out there and get going. And particularly having these songs. It was so hard during COVID to put out an album and not be able to tour. And I realized that it’s not just for me. As an artist, it’s not just playing those songs live in front of an audience, and the experience of that, that I missed.”
Urban’s High and Alive World Tour is of course in support of his latest HIGH album, released last October. But the “Straight Line” singer hints that fans might not necessarily hear the songs the way he recorded them for the project.
“When I make an album, that’s one version of those songs,” he explained. “It’s just one version. Yes, it’s the recorded version, but it’s just one version. I love getting out on stage and continuing to discover and expand and excavate more of what these song’s potential is. And it happens live. Songs get a little longer, or they have little moments. They evolve over the course of touring. I love that I get to give the song’s more dimension live.”
Find all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows at KeithUrban.com.