Urban's self-titled 2000 Platinum solo debut, with its No. 1 single "But For the Grace of God" and the GRAMMY-nominated instrumental "Rollercoaster," turned the tide. The follow-up, 2002's double-Platinum Golden Road, delivered on the promise of his 2001 CMA Horizon Award win. The new Platinum Be Here - Urban's first No. 1 chart-topping album on Billboard's Country Album Chart - is his crossover from next-big-something to big, period.
"Of course," he admitted with a chuckle, "in my stupid, naïve way, I did think it was going to be a lot easier. I thought this would have happened 10 years ago. But God, I'm glad it didn't, because I would have completely blown it, I'm sure."
Ten years ago, Urban may have been just another young hopeful with big dreams on Music Row, but he was already a seasoned performer. He spent years of hardscrabble gigging on the Australian pub and Country Music talent contest scene. According to fellow Aussie guitarist and songwriter Bill Chambers (patriarch of that country's award winning Dead Ringer Band and father of singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers), Urban already had serious chops and star quality back then.
Chambers vividly recalls the first time he saw Urban play. It was at a club in Avoca Beach, just north of Sydney.
"It was one of the best gigs we'd ever seen," Chambers said. Urban's repertoire was heavy on Country covers at the time, including a storming version "Devil Went Down to Georgia" on which he nailed the dueling fiddle solos on guitar.
"I just couldn't believe how good he was," Chambers said. "Of course he's a good looking guy and he's got a great voice, but to be able to play those guitar licks at the same time as you sing - I was just awestruck."
Raised on a farm near Brisbane, Urban inherited his love of Country Music from his parents, who signed the family up with the local "Country Music club," a sort of social club in which like-minded fans come together to perform and dance to live Country Music.
"I was so immersed in that scene growing up, I thought everybody was in a Country Music club," Urban said. "It's like a lifestyle in Australia. Families all join these little clubs, and they'd have events once a month. And then once a year all the Country Music clubs in Australia would get together in one town and compete, club to club."
Urban, an accomplished picker and performer by his teens, stood out enough to land a deal with EMI Australia, which released his debut album in 1990. Four No. 1 Australian Country singles - and a publishing deal with MCA - later, he set his sights on Music City, U.S.A.
But Nashville in the early to mid-90s didn't know what to do with the Australian, and at first he barely managed to eek out a living off his publishing deal. His fortunes didn't change much even after he scored an American record label deal, with Capitol, namely because he was signed not as a solo artist but as one-third (albeit the lead singer and guitarist) of the Country rock band The Ranch. The band's self-titled 1997 debut failed to garner much attention.