Keith Urban‘s Las Vegas residency, Keith Urban: The Las Vegas Residency at Zappos Theater in Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino will continue with more dates later this year. The New Zealand-born singer added more shows, due to fan demand, although he admits he is enjoying the residency as much as his audience, and maybe more.
“Vegas is great,” Urban told the Country Music Association. “This is also our third time back, playing our residency there. It’s the unexpected. I think that’s what I love about Vegas. Friday night to the next Friday night is completely different, and you never know what’s going to happen in a crowd. You never know what’s going to happen in our show. The energy and the unpredictability and the rawness of it every night, I love it.”
The irony isn’t lost on Urban that he is continuing a residency that he once refused to be a part of, turning down the invitation more than once. But now that he has seen what it’s really like, the 55-year-old wants to keep the party going as long as possible.
“I resisted a residency in Vegas for a few years. We got asked to come there quite a few years ago,” Urban previously told Billboard. “I just didn’t think I would like it because in my head, it just seemed like the word residency just felt like, ‘Oh, you’re just doing the same show in the same place night after night after night,’ and that just sounded like an episode of Severance to me. But when we saw the [venue], I was ‘Oh my God, I think we’ll have a blast in here.’ I was surprised how much I loved it.”
Urban is part of the televised CMA Fest special, airing on Wednesday, July 19, at 9:00 PM ET on ABC. The father of two sings his recent No. 1 hit, “Wild Hearts,” during the broadcast, a song that was originally written by Runaway June‘s Jennifer Wayne, Old Dominion‘s Brad Tursi and Eric Paslay, with Urban tweaking the song to make it his own.
“This whole thing came together faster than probably any song I’ve ever done,” Urban told his record label last year. “I got sent the song in early May, and I rewrote the lyrics within a couple of weeks of getting the track without the vocals on it, so I could work on that. And once I got those where I wanted them, I went down into my studio and put down a vocal on the song and then I added guitars and I sort of built out the demo that I got sent.
“Everything was done so quick, and then I sent it to my manager to say, ‘Hey, we just did this last week. What do you think about this song?’: he added. “And he said, ‘I think we should put that song out.’ I went, ‘When?’ He was like, ‘Now!’ (laughs) He’s like, ‘This just sounds great.’”
Find all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows, including his Keith Urban: The Las Vegas Residency dates, at KeithUrban.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of KF Publicity