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There isn't a kind of country music.
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Country music is evolving. It's always evolved.
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It expands, it contracts, it expands, it contracts.
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People come into town and they bring different colors, different approaches, and it expands.
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And it expands, expands, and then everyone goes, "Oh my god, we've lost our way."
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Quickly, quickly, back to the center. Back to the center. Back to the center.
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Kick everyone out of town who's private baggers. Here we go. Hats, cattle, good.
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And then it and then it slowly starts to expand again.
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And that I think that expanding and contracting is like it's breathing.
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It's a living breathing thing and it's done it since the 40s50s.
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Um but I you know when people go oh that's not country.
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I always think well it's not your country.
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It's someone else's country. I promise you. [Music] Look at you. You rockstar. What's going on? How are you Zane? Good to see you man. You too.
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For someone who I like so much.
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Boy, we sure avoid each other.
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Well, um I didn't even really get a chance to to to have a proper conversation with you about this album high.
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So, I'm very glad to get to do it now. Yeah, me too. Thank you.
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Uh and congrats, man, on the ACM award.
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You know, the big sort of lifetime achievement legacy haven't you done well award.
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You looked so you look so grateful and uncomfortable accepting that award. I watched your speech.
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It's it's what they call it.
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It's called a triple crown award. Triple crown award. Yeah.
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You have to have won three particular. You have to won.
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You have to have won best new artist, best vocal, and then entertainer of the year.
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And once you get the three, then three. Yeah. You qualify.
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It's like the ACM's EGOT. Yeah, pretty much.
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It's like that's the vibe. Exactly.
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I just like watching you in a public setting being showered with praise without a guitar in your hand because I feel like it's not necessarily the most natural disposition for you.
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That's why I have one under the chair. Exactly. Ready to go. Yeah. Yeah.
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I mean, there's a humility that you carry with yourself despite your abilities, your talent, your success that I think is just baked into who you are as a person.
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Is that a fair observation? Yeah.
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I just love I love playing music.
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You know, if I didn't get to do it at this level, I'd be playing in a bar tonight somewhere.
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I would say humble beginnings, but but that's what other people say about people born in New Zealand. It's not humble at all. It's beautiful, mate.
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It We're all trying to get back there to be honest with you. It's pretty gorgeous.
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And it's not your sort of It's not the place you probably call home, but I know it's got a piece of your heart.
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Um, you know, do you have any memories of that as a kid?
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Mostly going to to visit my grandparents and the cousins, you know, I mean, our whole family was there.
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So, we we we were the only people in Australia at that point.
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You know, the we my mom and dad wanted to move.
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So, they moved to Queensland and that's where we'd lived, but I had no family except when we went to New Zealand.
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And it was expensive to to fly to New Zealand.
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And so, we would only go every 3 or four years or something. Yeah, man.
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Uh, my dad's from Fongray. Oh, wow.
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My family's from Fongray. Wow.
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I just spent time up at the Fong Heads over Christmas for a few days just taking it all in.
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It's so beautiful up there. It's expansive. It's remarkable.
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Your life changed, you know, because your like all kids, you know, when your parents make a decision that they want to do something and you just follow suit.
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It's what you got to do, man.
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You hit yourself to them and you're out.
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So, did you ever sort of get to I'm sure you did.
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Like, what's the what's the story behind moving to Queensland? It's warm.
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I mean, it's not like New Zealand's cold.
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No, it's not coming from Iceland. No. No.
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Iceland. No. No. or or you know Christ Church or something or Wellington or anywhere you know it's like it's it's up the northern it's beautiful and but my dad really wanted to just I think it's that thing where you just want to you want to make your own life not be around
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your family not be around your relatives just have full independence and start a new life and it's crazy that I'm wired the same I mean they wanted to go to the bigger country of Australia I wanted to go to the bigger country of America and it's the same it's in the I think do you joke about that with your folks? I mean,
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I mean, do you have conversations in in or or in the past perhaps when you've talked a little bit about the kind of DNA, the throughine of like the the the great sort of adventurer, you know, circus traveler. I'm grateful for it.
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You know, they definitely had it both. Both mom and dad did.
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And my mom's still alive. She's thriving. She's 83 this year. Amazing. Fit as a fiddle. Fantastic. Mhm.
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How have you been able to share your success in a with them in a way over the course of your journey today in a way that's most meaningful to you?
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Like when I speak to some artists, it's it's about getting them out of debt or perhaps buying them a house or doing something or just even some of them come on the road.
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I mean, I you know, I saw a great documentary with Carol G the other day and her parents are pumping in all the time and experiencing it.
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How was it meaningful for you for your folks um both in the past and to today to get to sort of experience the Keith Urban Road Show?
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I think the thing my dad always wanted to live in America. Yeah.
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That was really That was really I remember when I was maybe I've forgotten how old I was single digits. Yeah.
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Uh he had this Manila envelope called the California file. Amazing already.
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And it was like all this stuff about living in California and what it would take to live somewhere there.
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And you know it's sort of like the American uh Queensland to some degree, right?
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you know, you're either going to go to Florida or or California in Queensland.
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And so that was his goal.
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He wanted to live in California one day.
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But I grew up playing country music, so I just wanted to live in Nashville. Yeah. Yeah.
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And did he ever come Did you ever get to spend time with him in California? Yeah. Was that everywhere?
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I mean, I mean, they back in the day, they would come on the tour bus with me.
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I got great footage of them sitting up front on the tour bus, trucking through wherever we were somewhere.
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And the folks always want to sip with the driver. Yeah.
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Every tour bus I've ever been on.
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My mom came on one with me once when I was doing a bit of touring with a with a TV show once and she came on the tour bus and she just wanted to hang with the driver. Yeah.
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She wanted to make sure we were all okay. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
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I was I always have a running joke with people who are from Sydney in particular.
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They're the only people in the world who come to Los Angeles and go, "Yeah, it's cool."
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Like everyone else is just like made it.
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And people from Sydney are like there's a distinct lack of parks.
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Apart from that, we're doing okay. No, it's magical.
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It's still, you know, it's still I' I've never lost that sort of sense of Wizard of Oz, like surreal Yeah. place that America is.
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Despite everything that's happened in the last 10 years, it still holds that mystical magical thing for me.
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Depending on who you talk to, I can only speak for myself.
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myself. I still I there's still even in the darkest times during which we are currently in you know some of the darkest times in my lifetime I still feel that there's there's there's some there's a sense of hope there is a promise of hope that exists within this idea do you know what I mean it comes
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out in the music and it's come out on this album man thank you what a segway that was oh that was amazing you should do this more often into that you don't need anything to fall back on this is it I think you should do this you're telling me that now thank god for that Jesus I know you took various courses, but you won't need them. Imagine if you said that to me like 20
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Imagine if you said that to me like 20 years ago.
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I' had a nervous breakdown when I got home that night.
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I'd have been like, he said, I I I don't need anything to fall back on.
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I immediately need something to fall back on.
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Yeah, that's how I think. Um, such a Kiwi. I know.
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We're so close to the edge, right, at all times.
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I mean, we pretend, but do we're just so easy going, but we're just hanging on by a thread. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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Whistling in the dark is what we're doing.
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getting ready for it to car it at any time. Um, blue sky.
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It starts with a with a with a with a with a hardly a song, but a message to yourself ultimately, which is like, you know, I I need something more than this.
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Whatever this image of of life is right now, this alarm, this thing waking me up.
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This thing I've got to get on with it.
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You tell me why you started your album with a what is effectively a piece of imagery.
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The first song is um Straight Line. Yeah. But Blue Sky.
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I've got here on a track listing.
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I'm going somewhere with this. Okay, good. Hang on to it. Well, I got freaked out.
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I was like, "Oh have I got it wrong?" No. Okay, good.
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No, the first song is uh is Straight Line.
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Um and when it's a very upbeat, buoyant track about sort of reclaiming your life, you know, in because you we can all get caught up in a monotony and a linear need depending on what your job is, you know?
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Like I'm highly aware that people that are working around the clock in jobs they hate, they have to pay the bills and all the rest of it, they're looking at me going, "Well, screw you.
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You don't understand anything about this."
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But I know the feeling of having to just be in the grind day after day after day.
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And at some point you're like, "I don't even like my life anymore. What happened?" You know?
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Um, and sometimes just a song can shake you up for a minute and give you a three-minute vacation. Oh, yeah. And that was really it.
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That's that was the intent for that song was to give you a three-minute vacation, but I didn't know how to start the song.
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And then when we got into mix and we're like we did a fade in, we did all these combinations.
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And I'm like, it's really about waking up with a freaking alarm clock, smashing the clock and being like, "Here we go again." Yeah. What day is it? Day.
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What a bunch of crap my life is.
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And then you go, "Just give me a bit of blue sky. That's all I want."
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And then boom, the song starts.
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And it felt like the right way to set the song up. Yeah, it's beautiful.
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And you go on a really interesting road after that or through the whole record.
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I mean, I reckon around the time of Love is Hard, you know, we're getting into the rough stuff, you know what I mean?
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And figuring out like, you know, that it's not all about, you know, the the escapism that there's you know, you definitely taken us to places of of real emotional kind of connectivity and um you know, as a body of work, like how do you know when it's when it's complete?
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Because there isn't like a necessarily through line here that I can see, but maybe you can like what is it, if there is one?
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What is high to you as a body of work?
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I think what you mentioned earlier about just America, a sense of hope. Yeah. Just a sense of hope.
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I mean that if that's all you've got, it's it's it's sometimes enough. Yeah. Get you through. What's that?
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I mean, this is extreme, but that crazy expression, the thought of suicide has gotten many a lonely man through the night.
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I've never heard that before. Let's get one. That's powerful.
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I've never heard that before. Yeah. man.
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And I mean, listen, it's a very normal thing to question your mortality at times of real sadness and desperation.
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And I think you're on to something there.
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I think realizing that you can maybe is a reason to not. Yeah. Yeah.
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It's all about reaching out, asking for help, which is really hard to do. You've been there, man.
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Um, and you've covered it in your music.
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And boy, what a beautiful place to be in your life now.
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You know, family man with children grown and all all things going in the order of things. Yeah. To look back.
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Are you a reflective person?
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Do you allow yourself the grace to acknowledge the journey that you've been on and the distance that you've traveled?
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That was a beautiful pray.
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That whole thing right there was just beautiful.
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Um I got caught up in the word grace.
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It's such a great word, grace, isn't it? It's my favorite. It's beautiful.
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Um I appreciate it deeply because of the contrasts.
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You know, I was just I was driving over here with my videographer this morning and and he was talking about the times of going through rough stuff when you're young, living in crap houses and, you know, just, you know, 20 people living in a one-bedroom house kind of thing, jammed in there, which was my experience in the beginning of Nashville and how that stuff can give you such a sense of appreciation for for not being in there anymore.
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Some great memories you look back on there.
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I mean, I think of some of those times when I moved to London, I didn't have a like literally two breadcrumbs to to put together.
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And it's like, but somehow I could still afford to buy 10 10, you know, a pack of marble like tens. Yeah.
11:27
Well, you got your priorities, right?
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I spend more on cigarettes than I would on food. Yeah.
11:32
A good pack of cigarettes has gotten many a lonely man through the night.
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Okay, I'll give it to you. Don't smoke, kids.
11:39
But if you do, it's better to do it when you're poor. It's worse things.
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It's, you know, it's best to do it when you ain't got any money.
11:43
Um, but you should be spending your money on other things.
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That's that's absolutely right.
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Um, yeah, I don't think this is cheeky. I think this is nice.
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I I I this this question I even think, you know, the the reclaiming of the term high must have been nice.
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The idea of being able to dedicate an album to a word that for the longest time probably triggered something in you, right?
12:02
Because it's a beautiful word, but but we've we've adopted it to a form of kind of personal search, right?
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The the destruction of distraction. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
12:11
you know, and so and so it's it must have been I don't know if that even crossed your mind, but the idea of like I can actually claim this now. Yeah. Yeah. It was intentionally.
12:19
Can we talk a bit about that?
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Can we elaborate on that feeling for you? Yeah.
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I mean, you know, it's no secret.
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I've been to multiple rehabs.
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Um but, you know, coming up on 19 years of sobriety this year. Thank you.
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And uh uh the sort of dark humor of the word high. Yeah.
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For a guy like me is just too right on the money.
12:40
So I love how you see this as dark humor as now that I know you I will always see it as a dark humor element to it.
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But I just saw it as like um I've earned this like I I've I know what that word means to me now versus what the connotation of it in other ways. Well, it's Yeah.
12:55
And it's always it's a great word because it means so many things to to different people.
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different things, you know, and um it's meant different things to me through my life.
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It means something different now than it did 19 years ago.
13:08
So, what gets you high now? Playing on stage. Really? I mean, it always has. It always has.
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I mean, that was always my safe place was being on stage.
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It was my my my troubles were were off stage.
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Being on stage was always my really happy place.
13:21
Anyone I know who's come through the other side of recovery in a significant way and has lasted the distance and continues to last the distance will say that there was one fundamental thing that ultimately changed the perspective of that and allowed there to be enough space to grow past the addiction. Right. Right.
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And and that can be multiple things but one kind of fundamental moment of clarity or one thing in your life. Was that love for you?
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Was that was that the prospect of being in love with somebody or finding something that was more powerful to you than the idea of being lost in something else?
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Or what was it if not that? Yeah.
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All through the years of drinking, doing drugs, all the rest of it, I always had this very specific voice inside of me that goes, "One day you're going to come to a crossroads or a fork in the road and you're going to have it'll be the final one.
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You're either going to choose to get out of this or you're never going to get out of it."
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That that day is going to come and it won't be like, "Well, if you mess it up this time, there'll be next time."
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there won't be a next time and you'll know when it comes.
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This went on for years and you know in 2006 when that when that happened and and my wife called an intervention on me I knew that was it.
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I'm like oh this is that fork in the road. Here it is. What a relief. Holy in a way.
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I mean, for all the work that you knew you had to do, Yeah.
14:44
which was a long road that you've been on and what a beautiful journey, but what a there must have been a sense of relief there that that voice that's been in your head finally could say, "Hey, yeah, I I don't have my job is done. You recognize it now. You see it.
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I didn't come to America for for that.
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I came to America to make music and record and tour and grow as an artist and as a human being.
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Yeah, I didn't I didn't come to America, end up in rehab and courouses and you know, like that's that's not why I came here.
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So, I'm like, what am I doing, you know?
15:13
But took it it took it took a few took a few shots, you know.
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Um, you've been able to dedicate your life and worship at the altar of music ever since.
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You always have, but to your point now, it's clear what what you're here to do.
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And, uh, you've given us so much great music over the course of your life.
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Um, do you how do you sort of kind of look at the term legacy?
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Is it something that's on the horizon or is it something that someone else will adapt to your life when you're long gone? Like that one. I think that one. Yeah.
15:44
I just I'm I'm an explorer. I like exploring. I'm not seeking.
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I'm not like Seeking is kind of like looking for something that I can't find.
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But exploring is being in it, curious.
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And I'm I'm already there.
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I'm not trying to get somewhere. Yeah, I'm in it.
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I'm right here and I'm exploring everything around me.
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So, let's nerd out on that.
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Let's go deep into the exploratory experience for you of creating art, right?
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Cuz this is a safe space to do that, right?
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I'm not a clickbait kind of guy. No.
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And luckily, there's no microphones or cameras or lights anywhere, so that's good. Exactly.
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We're in a safe place right now. The trust tree.
16:22
This is the trust tree, right? Just kidding.
16:27
Uh, I want to I want to talk to you about what it feels like in the morning and nothing has been made that day.
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And from that moment forward, do the best you can to try to to describe what it feels like to know something's there that needs to be explored, created, finished.
16:42
Freedom just feels like freedom.
16:46
Um, that I don't want to waste. That's really it. Isn't addiction, dude?
16:52
Is it And by the way, let me rephrase that, but also keep the used word, same word.
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Is it a is it a is it a healthy addiction in the sense that like if I if I don't go down there today and explore this, there's a song that I haven't found that's just sitting there waiting for me somewhere in the ether, you know, like I like Neil Young said that to me.
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He's like, if I get a feeling I have to make a song and I don't get up and leave the room and make it right then and there, I feel it's going to go. Yeah. Yeah.
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Does that does that speak to you? Yeah.
17:18
And I what I've the way I look at it is that I don't have to go and do something.
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I just have to make sure things don't get in the way of that happening.
17:29
It's a very different approach.
17:31
It's like people used to say to me with my records, they go, "Oh, you really love pushing the boundaries of country."
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And I said, "I'm not pushing anything.
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I'm just not letting anything stop me from the natural curiosity."
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That's a very different thing.
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Like I'm not making myself go somewhere.
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I'm just clearing everything away so that it can it's already flowing that way.
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All I'm going to do is make stuff get in the way of it.
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Question it, slow it down, you know, critique it.
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So, if I can get rid of all that crap, it will just naturally flow. It's It just does.
18:01
So what is the Okay, so let's talk about the term country then because as music goes, it is a proud community of writers and performers and supporters um who uh very find that term precious, find what it represents in terms of the lineage of songwriting and storytelling to be an important thing to support and protect. Mhm.
18:24
And so when someone says like, "Oh, you know, you're really pushing the boundaries as a country," you know, that can either come from like, "Yay!" or like, "Wo, right."
18:33
But but somewhere in the middle, you're like, "Do you even know what that means?
18:37
What what the idea of pushing the boundaries of country means as a term?"
18:40
Like, no, because well, because country is always a relative um definition. U But that's hang on.
18:48
That's a very powerful statement because you know having grown up in Nashville as an adult. Yeah.
18:54
That it's also very specific to certain people.
18:57
Like it's a very specific term, right?
18:58
Well, first of all, nobody owns the term.
19:01
Um there isn't a kind of country music.
19:03
Country music is evolving. It's always evolved. It expands. It contracts. It expands. It contracts.
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People come into town and they bring different colors, different approaches, and it expands and it expands. Expands.
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And then everyone goes, "Oh my god, we've lost our way.
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Quickly, quickly back to the center. Back to the center. Back to the center.
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Kick everyone out of town who's profit bag. Here we go. Hats, cattle, good.
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And then it and then it slowly starts to expand again.
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And that I think that expanding and contracting is like it's breathing.
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It's a living breathing thing and it's done it since the 40s50s.
19:38
Um but I you know when people go, "Oh, that's not country."
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I always think, well, it's not your country.
19:41
It's someone else's country. I promise you. Yeah.
19:46
No matter what your country is. Yeah.
19:49
Um, it's not someone else's.
19:49
I mean, even if you love Alan Jackson, there's probably some Ernest Tub fans that are like, "No, that's not country." It's all relative.
19:57
You must have had some fascinating conversations with the kind of people that people consider to be their country who quietly say to you, "Yeah, man. I I ride with that."
20:08
Like, I'm considered to be the the poster child for this particular type of very linear singularity type country, right?
20:14
But they're not they're also kind of in their own way trying to fight their way out of that. Yeah.
20:18
I think you just got to be who you are. That's all.
20:22
You know, just be authentic to yourself.
20:24
If you That's why there's certain Isn't it funny?
20:25
There's certain artists if they make the same kind of record over and over and over again.
20:30
Some people call them dependable. Yeah. And reliable. Yeah.
20:34
And then other people will call them predictable. Yeah. Ex.
20:38
And the only the only in a negative in a negative way and the only band that are neither of those are AC/DC and they're perfect. Yeah. Yeah.
20:45
Like they can do the same record over and over again and it's like Yeah.
20:49
Cuz it's like the cyine chapel. Yeah.
20:52
Cuz it's blues rock based and it there's a purity to it. Simplicity working man. Yeah.
20:57
It's so You don't want Don't mess with that, you know?
21:01
I'm going to go see them tomorrow night. That's crazy. Yeah. So good, man.
21:05
I mean that's like I did I I did a press conference with them once.
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First time I ever met them and it was in front of the all it was like a hundred of Europe of Europe's finest press and this is like 20 years ago 25 years ago. I was young.
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I was I was green behind the ears.
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It was my first ever press conferences experiences and they line them all up like this.
21:23
Malcolm was in the band still might have been in the band and I was on but I was on the same row as them.
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So I wasn't part of the press.
21:30
I was almost in the band at this press conference which was so kickass.
21:34
And every time that someone in Europe would ask ask a question, they were always very earnest and genuine, but it was just like the questions were just not translating, especially to a group of Australian pirates. Pirates, right? That's what they are.
21:47
So that So this guy go, "Hello, my name is Zay. I'm from uh Germany.
21:52
Uh this album uh does sound very much like everything else you've ever made in throughout your career.
21:57
Do you ever decide you want to do anything different or do you just feel like you want to do the same thing again?
22:03
And then that same thing would happen every time.
22:06
There'd be chain smoking B&H golds, right?
22:08
Just chain smoking hunched over these little 5 foot one gangsters just gods of rock staring at you just through plumes of smoke.
22:18
and they'd look down the side and then someone else would look down the side like, "Who's going to answer that question?"
22:23
And inevitably, one of them would just go, "Fucking take a in the morning, mate, and figure it out. I don't know."
22:31
They all just crack up laughing.
22:33
Not one straight answer out of any of them, but they all thought it was the greatest party they'd ever been to. I love that band. Oh, yeah. They're one of one.
22:41
Have you ever ever hung out with them or met them?
22:44
Yeah, I met Malcolm's really one of my hero. I never got to meet him.
22:47
I was so so bummed about that.
22:49
I was such a massive fan of the groove, man.
22:51
What a one of the great rhythm players of all time. So much.
22:55
But yeah, we met Brian and Angus and uh couple of other guys.
23:01
I think Cliff was playing bass for them. This was 2016. Yeah.
23:04
We saw him in Vegas and uh it was only it was only maybe a few weeks before Brian had to knock it on the head because of his hearing. Yeah.
23:13
And I thought, man, well, that's that's I'm glad we got to see him because that's the end of that. Yeah.
23:15
9 years later, here we are.
23:17
I'm going to go see Brian singing again. Unfucking.
23:19
Um, you just finished up high in Vegas. How was that?
23:23
How was the Vegas experience for Keith? Great. I love Vegas. Slide in for 10 days. Bounce it out. Yeah. Crazy energy.
23:29
And Fountain Blue where we played is a great place to play. Good sound.
23:33
Everything kind of dialed in. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay.
23:35
So, let's talk about performing in front of that kind of crowd versus like the kind of crowd you're going to play to on your tour which kicks off in a couple of months time.
23:41
So people in Vegas obviously they're Keith Urban fans and some of them will be coming from all over the world to see you because you're putting on these shows in Vegas and they get to do two for one, right?
23:48
We get to go and play crap and we get to see our guy.
23:50
So is there a different kind of energy in the room?
23:53
Is it is it What's it like doing a a residency versus like a one stop and then you're off to the next stop?
23:58
It's it's a mix of things cuz you've also got some VIP people in there that are like, "Let's go check this guy out, see what he does, right?" And it's okay.
24:06
But I mean, I grew up playing in the pubs to people that had that attitude. Yeah. Like, who's this wanker?
24:13
What why should I give a crap about this guy? Yeah.
24:14
So, I know what to do with those people cuz I grew up doing it.
24:17
So, in Australia, those pubs primarily, do you think? Or was it in Australia? Yeah. Yeah.
24:22
So, who else was on that circuit?
24:24
Was Barnesy on that circuit?
24:24
No, that was all down in Sydney. I'm up in Brisy. Right.
24:28
And so, what was So, what was that vibe like in Australia?
24:29
Like playing those pubs back in Brisbane back in those people don't give a right?
24:34
You know, and they you literally you just walk at people's arms cross this wanker. Yeah. You're loud.
24:38
You're annoying the out of me.
24:38
I'm here to play the pokés and get the out. And you got to get them.
24:43
You have to get them otherwise they'll get you. You know what I mean?
24:44
So, you just you just do it. How did you get him? What did you learn?
24:47
The right kind of covers, uh, guitar solos, uh, call and response stuff, interaction with the audience.
24:54
That's really tough when no one cares.
24:56
You just you just you just don't stop.
24:58
You just keep leaning in. Keep leaning in.
25:01
And eventually they're like, "Look at this guy.
25:03
I mean, he gives a He gives a about us.
25:07
He wants us to have a good time."
25:07
You know, when you know you got him when they go from this, you're there on stage.
25:12
I'm at the bar and and I'm just doing the classic Australian corner eye.
25:17
It's just all corner eye, right?
25:20
This guy then you talk to your mate and it's just more corner eye.
25:24
And eventually after your like 16th solo, I might go I get both eyes. You get both eyes. Yes.
25:29
And that's how you got them. That's a win.
25:30
That's like 80,000 peopleh. It's the equivalent.
25:35
We we played a place in uh Fongray when I was about 17.
25:41
I had this weekend gig playing there with in this duo I was in.
25:45
And we get to this pub on one of the afternoons and uh and there was a big Maui dart tournament happening there.
25:53
M the bar is full of these big m dark players and they're they're hammered and I'm up on stage.
26:02
They got the jukebox cranked and I'm up on stage and I'm like we have to start playing shortly.
26:06
So I'm like check check my microphone and I'm just like terrified to make a noise. No, wait, wait, wait. Do that. Hang on.
26:13
Wait, do that one more time. How'd it go? Check check one.
26:17
It's just intimidating reverb.
26:20
A so and this huge marag guy was like right by the jukebox and he looks up at me as I'm doing check one two and I'm like I'm dead. I'm so dead.
26:30
And he leans down and he reefs the electric cord out of the wall.
26:36
The music stops and he points he goes you play. I'm like oh Okay.
26:43
And we started singing and within seconds they were all singing along stacked harmonies. Right. Beautiful. It was so great. Beautiful.
26:51
Well, especially in that part of the world with that particular kind of family. My wife is half Maui. Her dad rest his soul.
27:00
Fullblooded Mari tribe up north, the whole thing. Really beautiful.
27:03
And the music and singing.
27:05
And that's why you get together is to have those kind of experiences.
27:11
Nobody at Christmas is sitting around talking. Mhm. You know what I mean?
27:16
That idea of having Christmas together when it's like, "So, how are you?
27:18
I haven't seen you all year. How are you?
27:21
It's like this is gonna suck.
27:22
85 versions of that conversation for the next three days.
27:27
Like, get the guitar out. Get the instruments out. Exactly. And let's do it.
27:30
So, what kind of role does music play in the house for you?
27:32
How I mean, I guess how old are your kids now? 14 and 16. Oh, they got the ox. Almost 17. Yeah. They're in charge. Yeah. Right.
27:41
So, they're they're running music to some degree in or at least either in their room or in their own zone.
27:46
Certainly in the car or they got their headphones on. Yeah.
27:47
We we it's it's very musical, you know, and I think we all they have great musical tastes and I think Nick has great taste.
27:56
So, we sort of I think we all hip each other to different songs and different artists we haven't heard yet.
28:01
What's What's Nicole into?
28:03
I'm interested in her taste. What kind of music?
28:04
Like if you could pick a couple of artists, nothing too personal.
28:08
No wedding songs, but a couple of artists that you know, her default kind of like she really loves to listen to that.
28:12
She's mostly got an indie spirit. Yeah.
28:14
So, anything indie she loves. Yeah.
28:16
She's very Sydney indie Sydney kind of girl. Is she a fan?
28:19
You remember UMI back in the day?
28:22
Is that I know that name for some reason. Yes. The Yes. Um. Yeah.
28:28
I don't know if she was hip to them or not. Okay. That's a That's a solid.
28:30
Actually, I haven't heard that name in a long time. They're a great band. Wow. They're a great band. Yeah.
28:34
No, I mean, you know, Triple J kind of girl. Nice. Back in the day. Triple J's.
28:39
You never ever leave it back in the day.
28:41
Once Triple J, always Triple J. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
28:44
No, I mean anyway, no disrespect Triple J, but I think they got a little they leaned a bit more commercial.
28:50
They have done than they used to be.
28:52
They have done, haven't we all?
28:55
Well, according to your algorithms, yes, I certainly have.
28:58
I mean, there's a couple of people in London right now who are like, you can keep him, right? Yeah.
29:03
He was way better back in the day when he was just playing nothing but miserable bands. Um, okay.
29:08
Let's get back to uh let's get back to to this album.
29:12
What was a song on this record?
29:14
I mentioned Love is Hard.
29:16
Um, was there a song on this album that took you to a place that taught you something about your own writing, about your own ability?
29:21
You went deeper and you felt like, you know, I've actually uncovered something here that that I'm sure it all feels that way, but has really challenged me.
29:28
Well, the final track's called Break the Chain, and that was uh that was a song that really any writer knows that there's certain days when songs just come.
29:40
You just you're just hanging on. Yeah.
29:43
because it's coming in really fast.
29:44
You know, those are magical days.
29:46
And that song came really, really fast.
29:48
And I had no intention of writing what became the subject matter of that song, growing up in an alcoholic house and discovering I'm the same as my dad genetically.
29:59
And this this idea of of well, not the idea, but just the I'm still processing my relationship with my dad, even though he passed away, you know, 10 odd years ago.
30:10
know, 10 odd years ago. M I'm still working on that relationship with my dad, you know, just seeing him through different eyes and having compassion and empathy for his struggles and journeys because of how he was
30:26
raised and then how my grandparents were raised by their parents and the whole chain that just is sort of And then at some point I realized well I can either keep pointing fingers and blaming or I can take responsibility and maybe try and change things and break the chain. Beautiful. Amazing to have achieved that Beautiful.
30:43
Amazing to have achieved that in a song.
30:45
Um real clearing uh a real clearing of of space and of land to be for for that for that to come to you and probably a byproduct of a lot of work that you'd been doing for that song to emerge out of nowhere. Right.
30:55
It doesn't just come from nowhere. No.
30:57
Do you can you pass me that guitar over there? Yes, please.
31:01
Um, and can you hear this?
31:01
The the the size of relief from people in the room that it's not me. No.
31:05
I'm going to ask you to play something for me right now. No. Serious. Oh, no. Don't do that.
31:11
Last time I did that, I got torched. Seriously.
31:12
So, Sabrina Carpenter called me Ken. What? I picked up a guitar.
31:17
I tried to play something.
31:19
She's like, "Are you kenning me right now?" from Barbie and Ken. It's brutal. brutal.
31:22
That is quite the slam, isn't it?
31:24
She's a slam dunker, mate.
31:27
this um uh this the guy I wrote, Mark Siblia, uh who had never met, the friend of mine said, the publisher in town said, "You guys should get together and see what happens."
31:38
I walk into his little studio.
31:40
I've never met him before.
31:40
And he has this acoustic guitar in the corner.
31:41
It's got like nylon, it's got like rubber strings and it's just weird.
31:45
I've never seen it and this this this won't sound like it, but I picked up the guitar and I just went [Music] And while I'm pl I'm going, that's a lovely guitar.
32:06
Never played that riff before.
32:08
While I'm doing this, he's like, he's grabbing a microphone and he's shoving it in front of the guitar and he's hitting record.
32:12
And it's like, we haven't said anything to each other. I love that.
32:16
And uh so he records that and I'm like, and catch this bit.
32:26
Thank youa [Music] beautiful and we did that and then this melody starts coming and all these words start coming and it was just like man it must have been emotional you must have finished work that day and it is work
32:47
it's beautiful work and you must have finished finished that and then I'd imagine there must have been some emotions because when it catches you off guard like that, especially a subject matter like that, and the music supports you to to to tell the story. Yeah. It Yeah.
32:57
It must be the closest thing you get to how we feel when we hear your music cuz Yeah.
33:05
I I mean I I So, we really didn't say didn't say anything.
33:09
He just he takes the guitar parts, he goes over and he starts putting some textures around it, adding some rhythms and various things.
33:17
And I grab this uh uh I like writing still, like with pen and paper. Yeah. Yeah.
33:23
So, I grab just a, you know, legal pad and I go sit on his couch and I just start writing, writing, writing, writing, writing.
33:29
And I get down to this little piece about my dad and I'm like, "What the fuck?"
33:34
And um I just like burst out crying on this guy's couch, this complete stranger.
33:40
And I'm sitting there in like this fetal position just weeping. What's this guy? What's this guy's name? Mark Sibil.
33:44
Mark sitting there texting your publisher like, "Yo, Keith is a lot. This guy is a lot."
33:48
like he's over there working away like on on his in his little world there.
33:54
I'm sitting there weeping on his couch.
33:56
He looks over at me and he goes, "Hm, must be true."
34:01
And then he and then he just then he just went right back to work again. It was like perfect.
34:05
It was the perfect reaction. Must be true. Yeah. Crazy. Beautiful.
34:12
It has that It's interesting, isn't it?
34:14
Cuz even that it has that sort of marching into the truth feel to it.
34:18
Like if it had been something that had been a little bit more here, pass me the guitar real quick.
34:21
So if it had been if if you tried to write something else. There you go, Ken. Thanks, buddy. Thank you.
34:26
If it try to be something else, like if it had been more of a sort of like a soft like it's like, okay, well that's a reflective thing, right?
34:33
That's like a nice little reflective thing to tell a story. Yes. Great, isn't it?
34:39
But but but the fact that you had this kind of like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
34:44
It's like, well, you know what? We're marching here. Absolutely.
34:48
You know, into something. Yeah. Yeah.
34:50
It had a um a trance hypnotic kind of almost like a I mean, it's like you sort of You're the voice. You're the voice. Try brilliant. You're the voice. Try to understand it.
35:07
Make it noise and make it. That's great.
35:10
Is that something you're working on? I am. Do you like it? That's pretty good. Yeah.
35:12
I think it's got potential. Fans. Yeah. What a voice. What a song. What a song. That song though, right? Yeah.
35:22
It's just like and then they put the Didn't that Doesn't it have bag pipes? Yeah. Yeah. But Bond did it first. Bond did it best. Bond did it best. But bag pipes, man.
35:35
I mean that now that's one you got to get on.
35:38
You got to get bag pipes on a song. That's true. I do. Yeah, you're right. All right. Done.
35:43
I'll credit you for that.
35:43
I don't want your credit. No. Okay. Do you play bag pipes? No.
35:48
Don't they say a gentleman is someone who can play bag pipes but doesn't?
35:52
What the do you get these quotes from?
35:54
What are you like a walking Websters of strange and interesting quotations? weirdo, man.
36:00
quotations? weirdo, man. It's like I mean we This is a great montage for Bronty who does my social like here's Keith's captions and it's literally just like didn't a wise man once say that one sock is enough as long as two socks are available well that's
36:16
the guy that left the bag pipes in the backseat of his car and he left the car unlocked and when he came back there was two set of bag pipes in there man Christmas around yours must be a blast holy yeah you need to get out more uh the tour's going to be fun yeah more fun than this that's not fair. That's not fair. man. I spent 50 That's not fair. man.
36:38
I spent 50 minutes putting up with your strange brain.
36:42
yeah, I'll give you another one. Thank you.
36:45
That's quite That's probably a compliment. Oh, it is. I don't drop them.
36:49
I don't drop them unless you you hit me with the the truth.
36:52
These these are truth bombs. Oh, I love it. I didn't Now I get it. Yeah, it's so literal. They're truth bombs. You'll know if you up.
36:58
Do you know Do you know where the term blockbuster comes from? Isn't it insane?
37:03
That like we just think that's a summer blockbuster. I don't know this.
37:04
So, give us another one of Keith's captions.
37:06
It's an actual bomb that was used in World War II that was so powerful it could destroy an entire city block and it was referred to as a blockbuster.
37:15
It's like dark violent and like we think of popcorn now. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah.
37:21
I mean, every time I've been like, man, I could do with another blockbuster.
37:25
Starting to think I need to reframe that. Yeah. Yeah.
37:28
I could annihilate a whole city block. Yeah. It's crazy.
37:31
Anyway, how do we get into that?
37:37
Oh, you're dropping truth bombs.
37:37
No, I need a I need to I need to get this right. Hang on.
37:40
Uh I need a strong What were we playing when we walked in?
37:43
What's the one that's up tempo and it's got that kind of Oh, Chuck Taylor's. Yeah. Yeah.
37:46
So, I need that like Okay.
37:49
Heading out on the road this summer. Keith Urban.
37:52
He's going to annihilate an entire city block, one city at a time with the High Life tour kicking off May 22nd in Orange Beach.
37:58
In a world in a world It's like everyone starts with it.
38:04
In a world in a world where where shoes are on power lines, in a world where truth is hard to come by, Keith Urban's bringing nothing but heart.
38:15
People are concerned for us right about now, Zayn. Right about now.
38:17
Or the Funk Soul Brother. Check it out now. Wow. The Funk Soul Brother. Wow. Right about now.
38:26
You just keep saying it faster and faster. Soul Brother. That's it. Yeah. Oh my god.
38:29
First time I ever heard that song.
38:32
And at the end it's just like funk off.
38:33
I was like what the And it was like number one for nine weeks in the UK. I'm like God bless. Oh yeah. God bless.
38:38
We love a good hypnotic hook.
38:40
What was your favorite like music moment of the '9s? What did you Yeah. What did you love?
38:46
I mean when you heard Smells Like Teen Chang, right? What is going on? It changed everything. Oh, it was insane. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
38:55
You know, I saw Pill Jam and I went to the other day in New Zealand and that's a great story.
39:01
I just love how they're just continuing to crush one.
39:03
They're just such a great band. Yeah. Amazing.
39:04
I went and saw Metallica a few weeks ago. Same thing.
39:09
I was like, how are they so good still?
39:11
They're like the uh as Billy Corgan said, they are the Olympic final of curling. Oh, I like that.
39:15
Because uh no one cares about curling until it's the Winter Olympic final of curling and then it's like 800 million people watch the final. There you go.
39:23
So, if you're going to go see one game of curling, you're going to go see Metallica. Yeah. That's it. Yeah.
39:28
I don't get curling until it's the Olympic final of curling. I still don't get it.
39:32
I'm like, what's the guy scrubbing the ice?
39:34
They should have done that before they played.
39:35
No, but that's like the whole theater of it.
39:38
Like, it's makes no difference whatsoever.
39:39
And this scrub the floor the scrub the floor.
39:41
And this is where like the whole curling community is just like, I'm coming for Keith and I'm coming for Zay and Keith. Absolutely.
39:48
We're Um, the warfet man, these are great places.
39:51
These are all amphitheaters. Legendary ones.
39:53
Jones Beach into Merryweather.
39:55
I mean, this is going to be beautiful. The sun is out.
39:57
I mean, that's this must be like at this point in your life as a touring artist and someone the last tour was in 2022, right?
40:06
So, you haven't been out for a minute.
40:07
Must have been nice to take a look at the schedule and go, "Okay, this kind of feels a little bit like a lifestyle tour."
40:11
Yeah, it's it's also a very summer record.
40:14
Like, High is a very summery record.
40:16
So, um, as we started putting the set list together, it was like, "Oh, this this one's going to work.
40:21
Oh, this one will work here."
40:21
It's like such a buoyant record.
40:22
So, I'm really uh grateful to get these songs out. I'm really psyched. We start very soon. Yeah. Couple of days.
40:29
How long have you been with the band now?
40:31
Like, who's your oldest member of the band?
40:34
It's mostly a pretty new band now. Okay. So, how do you do that?
40:36
How do you go about getting a new band?
40:37
If you're Keith Urban and you're like, "Okay, I kind of need to go want to go get some fresh some fresh perspectives, some new players.
40:43
How do you go about sort of finding the right people to spend that time on the road with to be able to trust on stage, but also know that after the show you're not going to want to send them 5 miles in that direction because they're a great player, but they're a dick. I just put an ad out.
40:56
It's like need a drummer, must own a PA. Stop lying.
40:58
Need a bass player, must own.
41:00
Can you imagine the audition process if you actually did that?
41:04
There'd be 9,000 people coming around.
41:04
I don't think we drones own a PA.
41:07
But that's how it used to be done back in the day, wasn't it? I know.
41:12
I keep I keep bringing must have van I keep bringing this up I keep bringing this up a conversation.
41:17
You remember when the Chili Peppers auditioned for the replacement of John Fante? It's a legendary story.
41:21
It's like three days of people coming in and playing under the bridge just constantly hearing their own songs getting butchered by people. Yeah.
41:30
Um how do you find a band? Word of mouth.
41:32
I mean you stealing people. That happens.
41:34
You're taking people off the No.
41:36
And um ah just it was uh you know people through people through people recommend a couple of people and I got I like people just sending videos because then this you know what I mean then you can s watch it and get a get a pretty good idea of the way someone plays and the way they are as a person and you can tell with the drummer sends a video and you're like okay that's that's the feel I'm looking for. Totally. Yeah. Yeah.
41:58
And all I got to do is play along with one of my songs one or two of them and I get a full sense of what they do. Yeah.
42:03
Must be nice to get in the room with everyone for the first time knowing that you've assembled something fresh and when you fire up. Oh, amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
42:09
We we did a few shows in Vegas with this most of this new band, particularly the rhythm section.
42:15
Um but it really wasn't until we got into full-on rehearsals about a month ago that I could feel, oh, here is the band.
42:22
This is This is really good. They better be.
42:24
You're about to take them to prime time television, man.
42:25
Holy Yeah, it's really good. It's very strong.
42:29
I want to talk to you about The Road.
42:30
Um, this is this new TV show that you some of your friends from Nashville have put together.
42:34
It's like a country investment.
42:35
It's like a It's like a What are those people that like put you raised like a huge amount of investment money? Hedge fund.
42:40
Yeah, you got a country hedge fund putting together this TV show right now. It's unbelievable.
42:44
Have you seen who's on who's signed on for this? It's unfucking.
42:47
Blake Shelton, executive producer. Like, it's insane. Taylor Sheridan. Taylor Sheridan. It's crazy.
42:53
Taylor Sheridan's involved as well. He's a producer. Get the out. Have you met him? Oh, yeah.
42:57
I'm fascinated by that guy. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
43:00
Give me an inside track on him. He's great writer. Fantastic writer.
43:03
Writes women badly at times sometimes.
43:05
I mean literally some of those female characters are like are you thinking of land man right now? Terrible.
43:09
But you like I go Billy Bob, what are you seeing in these people? What is wrong with you? Terrible. But but hell.
43:16
I just man I just swallow up his programs like you wouldn't believe. Me too.
43:20
Merrick Kingtown's probably my favorite of all time. That's great.
43:24
And you know he wrote Sakario.
43:24
I mean he's he's incredibly gifted. Yeah. Yeah.
43:26
And of course Lion S and everything else. He's great. Is he a joker? Um, no.
43:34
He's a mix of a lot of things.
43:34
He's got a lot going on in that in his head, but uh so I think Blake and a producing partner his from uh his previous uh job um came up with this idea of like what happens to these artists out of these singing TV shows?
43:51
What happens when it's all finished? Where do they go? What do they do?
43:55
Most of them just go into the clubs and then have to figure out who they really are outside.
44:00
And some of them have never had any live experience, so they got to figure out how to get an audience.
44:05
So the idea of this thing being a club and they're real clubs and they're not TV studios.
44:11
We're going to a club in, you know, Oklahoma and Texas and Arkansas, Nashville.
44:14
We go into these clubs and basically I'm the headliner for the night.
44:18
I'm going to do half a half an hour with the with the house band, by the way.
44:25
And all of these people competing are going to get to do two songs each with the house band, a cover, and then they have to do an original and they got to and then they get then they live or die that night by the audience's vote in the in the room.
44:38
You're either on the road or off the road. Yeah.
44:39
You're either on the That's it.
44:41
And someone's kicked off every night.
44:43
Uh and it's amazing because you can be winning the crowd over night after night and then you go to another state and those people just don't like you. and you're off.
44:53
How much how much of this really is about punishing all those new artists in a way that you were punished as a child and saying, "See, it was hard back in the day."
45:02
And it's not like it's like it is now where it's like you go on prime time TV and supposedly your dreams come true. No, it's tough.
45:09
I mean, and it's not a it's not a audience is not cast, right?
45:12
They just they live locally.
45:15
They've come down to the club to see me play and they watch all these people basically opening for me and then they're voting on them and then Taylor Sheron is filming this whole thing and making it documentary style. It's crazy. It looks amazing.
45:28
It looks I saw some footage of it. It's It's crazy. It looks like a film.
45:32
Okay, so so I'm trying to figure out why Taylor Sheridan what the what the real selling point for Taylor Sheridan is when he's like scripting nine things at a time.
45:42
All of them prime time smashes.
45:45
He's probably I mean no question about it he's got the highest of audience share of any one singular production studio on the planet when it comes to TV right now if you put all of his shows together.
45:55
So what what do you think inspired him to want to kind of do a documentary style piece about live music? He loves music.
46:00
He's got a he's got a great ear for music and um it does actually play quite a big role in a lot of what he does. Oh god. Yeah. Yellowstone. I mean all that stuff.
46:09
The music in that it's great. Yeah.
46:10
And casting Luke Grimes and you know Absolutely.
46:13
And I think he he was I mean Blake went to him with the idea of this show and he said we just want to make it much more gritty and documentary authentic.
46:22
I mean going to get these people on the tour bus.
46:24
They got to have them and Gretchen Wilson is the tour manager which is hilarious.
46:30
She's the tour manager on the whole show. It's incredible.
46:32
So her job is getting him in and out of hotels and getting to rehearsals and you Why Gretchen?
46:37
Has she got a particular type of uh Cuz she's honest and tough as nails. She's no No at all. Doesn't care. Unfiltered. Perfect.
46:46
That's what you need in that role.
46:46
Um, and they live and die by their choices, you know.
46:50
No one's telling them what to sing.
46:51
They don't have a stylist.
46:51
So, they choose the cover. Yeah. They choose the cover.
46:54
They They have to do an original and they got to wow the crowd every night. know. How fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. So, you're underway. You shoot. You're filming. You're shooting already.
47:03
That's kind of happening as it's all done. Done and done. Comes out in the fall. I think September. Okay. It's called The Road. And uh Yeah. man. That's going to be fun.
47:11
And you just get to go out now and play these amazing places with your band and have a great time.
47:14
Is it like a bit of a summer road trip?
47:16
I mean, you know, will you be able to kind of share it with family as well?
47:19
They're going to come out on a few dates and, you know, barbecue in the back and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, probably. Amazing. Yeah.
47:24
I get to go and play and come home.
47:24
Play come home, you know.
47:26
National's good for that.
47:28
It's in a good distance from a lot of places. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
47:30
It's good to see you, man.
47:31
What's going on with what's going on with new music?
47:33
What's happening with the Cuz I mean, we're catching up.
47:35
What's going on with your guitar playing?
47:36
I mean, are you still working on that?
47:37
I'm working on some stuff, right? What are you working on? Do you write?
47:40
I well I mean this is a conversation we can have just you know I'll speak to you later.
47:44
I got some stuff cooking. It's good. I'm happy. Okay.
47:49
Obviously going to a competing network. That's fine. That's fine.
47:51
I don't want to talk about it here.
47:52
No, I'm I'm make I'm dude I mean it's it's it's kind of um you know what it's like when you're working on something and you haven't got the words yet because it's still happening. Yeah. It's called music.
48:02
Yet I've found an entire career out of forcing artists to talk about it.
48:07
We've been dancing about architecture for 35 years. Exactly. Exactly.
48:08
Um, see, I'm I'm also a notable quotable. Uh, yeah, you are.
48:13
What's going on with uh with your next record, though?
48:15
Because obviously we're catching up high now.
48:17
Came out last year and and not to be greedy, you're on the road, but I mean, you've got a beautiful studio and you curious and this is what you do for life. Yeah.
48:23
So, where are you at with new new songs?
48:26
I've got I've been working on a few things that are going to come out sometime this year, I think.
48:33
I just did a track with Pink yesterday. Amazing. A new duet with her. Yeah. How many now?
48:38
This will be the second one. So, we did one too many. Okay.
48:39
And yesterday was great because I got to go to her house and do it like at her house and both of us on a microphone each at the same time.
48:49
And we wanted to do that with One Too Many, but it was 2020, so we had to do it separate.
48:52
So, it was really nice to finally get in the same room.
48:56
I don't want to give the game away, but also I'd imagine that uh you know, the food was fresh and it was amazing, right? It's good out there. Amazing food.
49:02
It's good out there, man.
49:04
It's pretty good out there. Beautiful. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
49:05
Out out there in Somerville. out there in Sunville.
49:08
Man, I like it out in Someville.
49:09
It must be nice also for you to be in a like you say because often it's it's a shared file experience which is a great form of convenience, but to be able to be in a room with a voice like when I did carpool at the end of last year, I did a quick run of carpool for Christmas and I was in the car with with Gaga and she was singing next to me and it was like wild, bro. It was radioactive.
49:30
It was and she was like, "I'm sorry, I just can't not sing."
49:34
And I'm like, "No, I'm loving it."
49:35
But it was like so powerful.
49:35
Must have been must be great in that experience when you and Pink we got the you got the lungs for it.
49:41
Can really capture that emotion together.
49:43
She's one of the great all time.
49:45
She's one of the great singers of all time. Period.
49:47
And you know her voice within seconds.
49:50
I think she's one of the great people. Yeah, she is.
49:53
I think she's such a righteous human. She is. She's phenomenal.
49:56
There's pretty much nothing she hasn't said or done that I don't go, "Yeah, I'm I'm I'm down with that." Yeah.
50:02
I said to her, "Well, I mean, your show is so physical." Yeah.
50:05
Is there any point where you sort of go, "What have I done?" You know? Yeah.
50:10
While you're trapezing up and down the stage, like I said, "What's your plan?"
50:13
She goes, "To just keep doing it."
50:15
I was like, "Of course you that's perfect. I love it. Just keep doing it." Absolutely.
50:21
When you realize when you realize you've won, why would you ever want to get in your own way?
50:24
want to get in your own way? And that's what I think we're getting back to sort of this is a nice way to close the loop on this particular moment in our lives, Keith, because when we started, we talked about that term high and the idea
50:35
of sort of making music and you you summed it up beautifully when you said you're not trying to sort of you're trying to get whatever could be in your way of achieving that objective of just making a great song, making great music as possible and just focusing on that purity of it. And that's kind of what
50:53
And that's kind of what she's saying, like, right, I kind of realize now I don't have to complicate it. I just have to honor it. Yeah.
50:59
It's the it's the big flip.
51:01
I think it's a paradigm shift of recognizing everything you want to do, you're already doing.
51:09
You're already heading towards it.
51:09
You just have to make get rid of everything that's stopping you.
51:12
You know, you've found it. You're it. You're doing it.
51:18
You just have to get rid of everything that's not it.
51:19
You don't have to find it. It's already there.
51:22
Is there a fourth crown or triple crowns? They do. That's it.
51:26
I think they they wrap it at three.
51:28
Wrap it at three, you know, which is such a shame cuz then I would be enough.
51:33
Isn't that great that Jim Carrey moment, right?
51:35
Oh my god, it's the best. I just love it, man.
51:37
You brought your pop culture handbook with you today, man. It's been a blast.
51:40
That's one of my favorites of all time.
51:41
Can you believe we've been speaking for an hour and 5 minutes?
51:43
It's felt like five hours, hasn't it?
51:45
It always is with you, Z. 5 hours. Yeah. No. Effortless. 5 minutes. Amazing. Always. Love you, Keith. I love you, too.
51:51
I've still got your passport photos.
51:52
You know, sometimes I look at them at night when I'm feeling sad.
51:54
Oh, that's where they are. [Music]