Keith Urban has made no secret of his deep appreciation for Lainey Wilson. The New Zealand-born singer invited Wilson to join him on “Go Home W U,” from his forthcoming HIGH album, just one way he is endorsing Wilson and her place in country music.

“Artistry, first and foremost. Authenticity and artistry,” Urban shared at a recent media event, when asked what drew him to Wilson. “Those things, they don’t always come in the same package. But she’s just the real deal. It’s no surprise to me that she’s caught fire as fast as she has, ’cause she’s ready. Despite what she thinks, she’s totally ready.”

It was Urban who handed Wilson her first Entertainer of the Year trophy at the CMA Awards last fall. The 56-year-old won in the same category 18 years prior, and vividly remembers feeling much the way Wilson did, after her big win.

“After the Entertainer of the Year honor, I went backstage, and she kind of had a deer in the headlights vibe about her,” Urban recalled. “I said, ‘How do you feel?’ She goes, ‘It’s so much, so quickly, and I want to stay around.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I felt this exact same way in 2005, when I won this. It felt way too soon. I felt like they had given me the gold watch. Thanks very much. There’s the door.

“‘I was just getting started, so I couldn’t enjoy it. It just felt like too much, too soon,” he continued. “‘But if you’re worthy of it, you’re worthy of it, and just own it, embrace it, and then get back to work. Get back in the trenches. And if you don’t think you’re worthy of it, be worthy of it. Get back in the trenches, and show everybody why you deserve this thing.'”

 

Winning the Entertainer of the Year trophy so early in their respective careers is just one of the many ways Urban says the two are similar, even with the years between them. It’s part of what convinced him to ask Wilson to join him on “Go Home W U.”

“I feel like we’re cut from very similar cloths, and I really wanted to find something to do with her,” Urban said. “I thought our voices would go  well together, and it turned out to be this song, which wasn’t written as a duet, but Dan McCarroll, who is a good friend of mine, said, ‘That song might be a good duo, if you could find the right voice.’ And of course, Lainey is it. She was it. It just took the song to a whole ‘nother level. But what was frustrating about it is, we recorded it in July, last year. So we’ve been sitting on this song for a year.

“And when she won Entertainer of the Year,” he added, “and I gave it to her, if you watch the footage back, I’m extra elated, because we’ve got this song, the two of us have this song, that only the two of us have heard. I so wish we could have put it out the next day, but it is what it is.”

HIGH will be out on September 20. Urban will kick off his HIGH residency this fall. Find all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows, and pre-order his new project, at KeithUrban.com.