At this point in his career, Keith Urban is a professional singing competition. He was a voice coach on three seasons of its Australian version The voiceand spent four seasons as a judge American Idol.
That's why he was the perfect choice to mentor NBC's 25th season The voicehelping the contestants prepare for the knockout rounds starting on April 8. “It's such a family atmosphere at The voice” says the “Blue Ain't Your Color” singer. Advertising signnoting that he enjoyed working with coaches Chance the Rapper and John Legend, as well as fellow stars Reba McEntire and Dan + Shay.
As a veteran of the singing competition scene, he knows that guidance is personal, opting instead for “blanket advice” for contestants. “You have to meet each artist where they are. What is consistent is knowing which advice to take or reject,” he explains. “I'm sure the coaches would agree that nobody has all the answers. Especially if you're doing something unique, chances are no one has figured it out yet. A lot of artists get a lot of “You have to change this and change that.” Sometimes, you don't need to change anything at all. You have to keep working and make a better version of what already exists.”
Navigating advice from all directions is a “challenge” that Urban himself has experienced throughout his career, adding that it's important to be selective with your inner circle. “You can be really stubborn and adamant about certain things, but that will keep you stuck. Then, other times, you listen to someone's advice and you think maybe this is what you should do and you do it and then you find yourself lost and the advice didn't work for you,” he says. “For me, the most important thing was to have people I trust around me. Honestly, even family and friends often have a little bias — positive or negative. You may have some friends who are extremely jealous or may be prejudiced and will give you advice that is actually not very good. Having people around me whose opinions I really trust has helped my career the most.”
As for the acquisition of McEntire and Dan + Shay country The voice, Urban isn't surprised. “It reflects the growing popularity of country music as a genre, not just nationally but around the world,” he says proudly. “It's amazing to see it take off the way it does.”
While helping aspiring artists at the start of their careers, the four-time Grammy winner continues his own illustrious career, as he is set to release a new album soon, which will include the songs “Straight Line” and “Messed Up As Me.”
“It's always fun for me,” he says when asked how he stays passionate about music after all these years. “I know it sounds crazy, but now I'm more excited to write a song than ever. Even making the current record was a crazy mix of fear, excitement, discovery, curiosity, passion – everything. I went through everything with this record, because I've never made this record. I have never seen this day. We had a lot of fun but we never had it. And this is how I live my life. Every day is a brand new blank canvas.”
He also emphasized the importance of staying in touch with how he felt when he was first starting out on his musical journey. “A quick example is when I went to the record company to play my new album the other day for about 50 people,” he recalls. “I wanted to print the lyrics to each song and while it was a lot of work, I didn't want someone to do it and I wanted to do it myself. So I put all the lyrics together and made this massive slideshow. I felt like I put up my own posters early in my career. If you have that feeling, you start to get tired and bored and your passion just disappears. For me, my passion remains as long as I keep doing the things I did in the beginning and it keeps it exciting.”
Catch Urban during The voice Knockouts, which begin Monday (April 8) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, before airing the following day on the Peacock.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/culture/tv-film/keith-urban-interview-the-voice-mentor-country-music-1235651723/