Keith Urban‘s euphoric, positive album, HIGH, is out now. The singer-songwriter featured songs like “Straight Line,” “Messed Up As Me,” “Wildside” and more on the 11-track project, all uptempo songs he included with the sole intention of making people feel good. The entire record ends with a song called “Break the Chain,” which is about his late father’s ongoing battle with alcoholism, something he was never able to conquer while he was alive.
“When we wrote it, I knew I wanted to end the album with it,” Urban shared with Everything Nash and other outlets. “And the album wasn’t even finished, or I didn’t know what songs were going to be on the album, but I knew I wanted to end with that. That’s just one of those beautiful divine days that happen when it’s time for that song to come out.”
Urban wrote “Break the Chain” with Marc Scibilia, a songwriter he had never met before, but was introduced to via Urban’s publisher.
“I call him and go to his house, and meet him for the very first time, walk into his studio,” Urban recalls. “He had a guitar in a stand, this acoustic guitar, but it looked really unusual, and I picked it up and started playing this guitar pattern. And while I’m playing it, he’s already got a microphone and he’s putting it next to my guitar, and we’ve said nothing to each other. We’re like, ‘Okay, here we go, we’re writing a song.’ And this melody came and this lyric came ‘Too late, is it too late for me to listen, for me to change?‘ And it just flowed, it just flowed out. I did the music quickly. Marc went over and started working on building a bit more of the track.”
It was when Urban started penning the second verse, which says, “Out here, I’ve been out here / On my own now, for way too long / Fightin’ my own battles / With my demons / With the way that I was raised / And never safe / And never sure / What made him so mad at the world / And mad at me / I was just a kid / I won’t do the same,” that Urban’s emotions got the better of him.
“I went and sat on his couch, and I got a legal pad out cause I like to write, and I’m writing,” Urban remembers. “I get to this second verse, and I just start weeping on this guy’s couch, just crying on this guy’s couch, who I’ve just met. He looks over at me and he goes, ‘Must be true.’ And then went right back to work. And it was the perfect reaction, because it let me stay in the place I was at with no judgment, and I could finish the song. And then I got on the mic and I sang it top to bottom and then did some harmonies and everything just went quickly.
“I didn’t second guess it,” he continues. “I just did it. He sent me the track the next day, pieced together, and I just said, ‘I think we should leave this one alone. I think this is real. I’m not going to go and track it with the band on a proper session and all this BS. We’re just going to leave it like that.'”
Even while dealing with a sobering subject — alcoholism — “Break the Chain” is, much like the other ten tracks on the record, uplifting and hopeful. It was an important direction for Urban, for his fans but also for himself.
“I realized that I need them,” Urban explains. “I need them to keep me from the negativity, the darkness, the insecurity, the depression, all of it. I’ve got to stay in motion. And I think those songs can sometimes be whistling in the dark songs for me. They’re a way to keep me company in the midst of all the darkness, and keep me moving. That may not be who I am, but they’re who I need to be to keep moving.”
Urban will kick off his HIGH in Vegas residency in October. Find HIGH and all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows at KeithUrban.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of CMA