Travelers at the Nashville International Airport over the weekend were treated to an unexpected performance by Keith Urban! The country music superstar performed at the BNA Live Stage in C Concourse, quickly gathering hundreds of people to watch him perform, in honor of the release of his latest song, “Messed Up As Me.”
Urban also shared a few clips of his performance on social media, including him telling a story of an unfortunate performance he had at another airport, early in his career.
“We get to this little regional airport,” Urban said. “There’s one baggage carousel, and the airport manager is walking us around. I went, ‘Where do we play?’ And you know on the carousel, right where the little conveyor belt goes around, above the conveyor belt is a little strip of carpet. That’s where we played. There’s three of us. She’s like, ‘Yeah, you guys can set up in a row.'”
Urban explained that the three of them got in a small line above the carousel for their airport show.
“I’m like, ‘Okay. When do we start?'” he recalled. “The airport manager goes, ‘Anytime.’ I’m like, ‘But there’s no one here.’ She goes, ‘They’ll show up.’ So we start playing, and sure enough, a couple people show up, then a few more, then a few more. We have quite a crowd.”
Urban initially thought it was what he called “the best gig,” until the luggage carousel began to beep loudly, signaling new baggage arriving.
From the baggage claim to a REAL STAGE !!!!! Sooooo fun celebrating the release of ‘Messed Up As Me’ with loads of you…
Posted by Keith Urban on Sunday, March 3, 2024
“Messed Up As Me” is Urban’s take on the good parts of an unhealthy relationship.
“Let’s put it this way: most of us have been in dysfunctional relationships before, where there’s not a lot of compatibility, except for that one area where it’s so good you put up with all the rest,” Urban said when the song was released. “A phone call or a night out and you’re right back where you shouldn’t be.”
“Messed Up As Me” follows “Straight Line,” the first song he released from his next project.
“‘Straight Line’ was just one of those songs that, it happened from a feeling in the studio, playing, and that melody coming and the lyric coming,” Urban shared with Everything Nash during a recent virtual media event. “The song just sort of grew. It just grew really quickly. There are two songs that are on this album that came from two days of writing with three of my buddies that I love writing with, and ‘Straight Line’ was the second of the two songs we wrote.”
Find “Straight Line,” “Messed Up As Me,” and all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows at KeithUrban.com.