Keith Urban reveals how his partying days and battle with substance abuse inspired his new record after 18 years of sobriety: ‘I’ve lived a life’
Keith Urban has revealed how his wild days of partying in bars amid his past battle with substance abuse have inspired his upcoming album High.
The singer, 56, has been sober for 18 years after a public battle with drug and alcohol abuse which saw him last go to rehab four months after tying the knot with Nicole Kidman in 2006.
Now, Keith has reflected back on when he would party through the night in bars with his friends and told how he has recreated some of those times in his new music.
He revealed the music video for his newly-released song Messed Up As Me was inspired by the many difficult situations he found himself at the time.
‘The music video is set across 2.45am to sunrise. A lot of things happen in those hours, and I’ve been in every scene,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
‘I’ve got plenty of things to mine, you know, this record is definitely not only about where I’m at; that would make it a very linear record.
‘Definitely, I’ve lived a life, and been a lot of people, and a lot of those people are represented in these songs.’
The song’s music video shows Keith looking sombre and distressed as he sits in a warehouse-like room belting out lyrics about being out drinking and taking ‘shots’.
Keith Urban has revealed how his wild days partying in bars amid his substance abuse battle have inspired his upcoming album High
The poignant words reflect back on his own battle with alcoholism, kicking off with the opening lines: ‘When I get blue, I get dark blue / When I have one, I always have a few.’
The Grammy-award winning artist also sings about ‘tequila starting to take a toll’ and feeling ‘messed up’ and ‘all alone’ in the emotional song.
Keith’s upcoming album High, slated for release on September 20, also sees Keith collaborate with Lainey Wilson on a track called Go Home W U, which also details a wild Saturday night out.
Keith honestly sings about being in an overdraft but still going out to ‘get wrecked’ and ‘living large in a small-town bar’.
The chorus adds: ‘Oh, I know that it’s closing time and / I won’t lie, yes, I had more than a few (few) / And you know I shouldn’t be driving / I think I should probably go home with you.’
Keith previously had a very public battle with drug and alcohol abuse, which saw his actress wife Nicole, 57, stage an intervention to help him get sober.
He entered rehab on several occasions, last checking himself into the Betty Ford Center in October 2006 just four months after marrying Nicole.
Keith (pictured in 2002) has revealed that the music video for his newly-released song Messed Up As Me was inspired by his wild nights out partying and the difficult situations he was in
‘I was very, very blessed to have Nic call an intervention on me,’ Keith previously said, adding that his reckless behavior ’caused the implosion of my fresh marriage’.
Speaking of Nicole’s decision to stay with him during his third stint in rehab in eight years, Keith once said that ‘she really should’ve just walked’.
Earlier this year, Keith admitted Nicole showed him ‘what love in action really looks like’ when his drug abuse problems emerged after they tied the knot in 2006.
‘Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,’ Keith shared in a moving speech in April when Nicole was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award.
‘Nic pushed through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.’
His emotional speech saw Nicole – who was sat with their two daughters Sunday Rose, 15, and Faith Margaret, 13 – break down in tears.
Keith, who grew up watching his late father Robert’s heavy drinking, previously said it took him ‘a long time to get sober’ because he didn’t ‘recognise’ his alcoholism.
‘I didn’t drink like my dad, so I compared everything to him,’ he recalled in a 2021 interview with Rolling Stone.
‘But I was able to finally make the right choice in my life, that I wish my dad [who died in 2015] would have made.’
The singer, 56, has been sober for 18 years after a public battle with drug and alcohol abuse which saw him last go to rehab four months after tying the knot with Nicole Kidman in 2006
Keith has been open about his past struggles with alcohol addiction, and revealed in 2018 that he wished he’d got sober earlier in his life.
‘I wish I’d gotten sober many years earlier than I did, but it is what it is,’ he said.
‘I knew I wasn’t at my full potential, and that’s what was starting to get to me. I was enslaved… I was living a very, very small life.’
Keith also admitted he ‘sucked at relationships’ prior to meeting Nicole, and that his song lyrics about love were far from his reality.
‘I would write these songs about love and relationships; I remember writing Somebody Like You and playing it for my girlfriend at the time and she just looked at me and said, ‘You’re a f**king hypocrite,’ and I couldn’t argue that,’ he added.
