| keith urban Facts |
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Name: |
Keith Lionel Urban |
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Birthdate: |
October 26, 1967 |
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Birthplace: |
Whangarei, New Zealand |
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Hair color: |
Blond |
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Eye color: |
Blue |
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Marital status: |
single, but "I'd love to be married and have two or three kids." |
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Musican Influences: |
Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Don Williams, Mark Knopfler, Freddie Mercury, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Ronnie Milsap and Dolly Parton. |
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Instruments played: |
Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, Ganjo, Banjo and Sitar. |
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First Musical Performance: |
Age 6 at a guitar recital. |
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First song ever fully learned: |
House of the Rising Sun |
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Goals: |
To tour the world as a successful artist, make better records, write better songs, be a good husband and father and make myself proud. I'd also like to host a documentary-type TV show. |
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Label: |
Capitol Nashville |
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Outback country: |
In 1990, he signed with EMI Records in Australia and recorded his first album Keith Urban '91, which yielded four No. 1 hits on the Australian charts |
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Lone wolf at heart: |
After moving to Nashville in 1992, keith formed The Ranch, a three-piece band that caught the ear of Capitol Records. The Ranch's self-titled 1997 debut album was a critical favorite but not a commercial success. The band broke up soon after, and keith was back on his own. "I enjoy the creative freedom of being solo, which I really didn't have as a member of a band," he says. "Also, it's much easier to accomplish a lot more in a shorter period of time. He who runs alone runs the fastest." |
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Favorite food: |
sushi (I'd probably eat it more often if it weren't so damn expensive) |
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Favorite movie: |
Citizen Kane |
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Favorite actors: |
Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson and Orson Wells |
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Favorite actresses: |
Sally Field and Susan Sarandon |
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Favorite songs: |
"Somewhere between (Glen Campbell's) 'Wichita Lineman' and (Queen's) 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' They're both extremely well crafted masterpieces. Melodically, lyrically - everything about them is just extraordinary." |
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Favorite Songwriters: |
Jimmy Webb, Rodney Crowell, Harly Allen, Vernon Rust, Bernie Taupin, Rob Thomas |
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Favorite albums: |
"I have so many and it's constantly changing. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours would be high up on the list. Ronnie Milsap had a record out, Out Where The Bright Lights Are Glowing, a tribute to Jim Reeves. I absorbed myself in it as a kid." |
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Other gigs: |
He sang backup on pop band INXS' song "Shining Star," played guitar on Garth Brooks' Double Live album and the Dixie Chicks' hit "Some Days You Gotta Dance," and picked the banjo on Sons of the Desert's "Ride." |
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Favorite Books: |
Three Magic Words, by U.S. Anderson, and Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God. |
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On country music: |
"I have this need to keep country being perceived as a cool genre and a broad genre. I really think that country is a genre as big as rock 'music do you play?' I say, 'Country.' And they say, 'Great. What kind?'" |
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Awards: |
1993 Country Capital Music Association (CCMA) Junior Male Vocalist
1990 Country Music Association Australia (CMAA) Star Maker Award
1991 CMAA Golden Guitar/Best New Talent
1992 CMAA Golden Guitar Male Vocalist and Golden Guitar Instrumentalist
1997 CMAA Golden Guitar Instrumentalist
2001 ACM New Male Vocalist
2001 CMA Horizon Award
2001 Grammy Nomination, Instrumental, Rollercoaster
#1 Single - But For The Grace Of God , 2001
#1 Single - Somebody Like You - broke record for 2002 - 8 consecutive weeks!
Featured: People's Sexiest Man Alive issue & US Weekly's Hottest Country Stars
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Billboard Top 10 singles: |
"Your Everything" (No. 4, 2000);
"But For The Grace Of God" (No. 1, 2001);
"Where The Blacktop Ends" (No. 3, 2001);
"Somebody Like You" (No. 1, 2002)
"Raining on Sunday" (No. 3, 2003)
"Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me" (No. 1, 2003)
"You'll Think of Me" (No. 9, 2004)
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