In 2007 Urban filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey painter with the same name over the painter's website. Keith the painter owned www.keithurban.com and Keith the singer owned www.keithurban.net. The singer claimed the other Keith Urban was trying to sell his artwork on his site by using language intended to confuse the public, like, "You have reached the site of Keith Urban. To those who don't know, oil painting is one of my hobbies." The suit wanted the site address transferred to the singer and an injunction barring the painter from operating a site that suggests any relationship between the two. The painter, who had his site registered before the singer, countersued. The lawsuit was settled in the painter's favor, but eventually the singer Keith Urban got the .com domain.
As a guitarist, his biggest musical influence is Mark Knopler from
Dire Straits. His singing influences include Glen Campbell, James Taylor and Freddie Mercury.
He met his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, in Los Angeles at a dinner honoring famous Australians (they are both Australian).
"I was trying to play it cool, but inside I felt like I'd snuck into the royal ball simply because Nic had such a truly otherworldly aura about her," he said during a speech at the AFI Life Achievement Award Gala.
Despite his awe, Urban managed to snag her phone number – scrawled, perhaps nervously, on a "tiny piece of paper."
Scoring her number was just the first hurdle. Urban admitted he was a bundle of nerves, carrying the precious piece of paper around for a whole week before finally working up the courage to call. "I was scared," he confessed, "nervous to call her." But call her he did, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Urban married Nicole Kidman on June 25, 2006 at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in Sydney, Australia. He sang "
Making Memories of Us" during the ceremony. In late September 2025, the couple announced their separation after 19 years of marriage.
Though he is known as being an Australian country music singer, Keith Urban was actually born in Whangarei, New Zealand. He moved with his parents to Caboolture, Queensland, Australia when he was teenager.
Urban moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1992. He found work as a touring guitarist for Brooks and Dunn, the Dixie Chicks, and Alan Jackson. A long-haired Urban can be seen in the music video for Jackson's 1993 hit "
Mercury Blues."
Keith Urban prefers to write down his songs the old fashioned way, with an ink pen. That's because he can't type very well.
Keith Urban played three shows as a teenager with a heavy metal band called Fractured Mirror. He recalled during his 2018 South By Southwest session "Creation and Connection": "We played Judas Priest and Saxon and Whitesnake and threw in some AC/DC in there, Scorpions. I didn't know anything about that music... I had a Fender Telecaster and a cool little Fender Twin Reverb [amplifier]. They're like, 'That's not gonna fly. You need a Marshall stack.' The singer had one and lent me his and I was in heaven."
By this stage Urban Urban had discovered the "chicken pickin'" style of Ricky Skaggs guitarist Ray Flacke. "I was obsessed with that," he said. "One night when I was palying with Fractured Mirror, one of the three gigs we did, I busted out a solo and started chicken pickin' through the Marshalls and the band was like, 'What the…?!' and they fired me."
Keith Urban likes to relax by getting behind the wheel. He explained: "I've always loved driving, it's such a cathartic thing for me. I love driving all different kinds of things: trucks, cars, big, small, fancy, not fancy. It doesn't matter. It's just very cathartic for me. Some people go skiing for that cathartic thing. Some people run a triathalon. Some people go fishing. I go driving. That's what I do."
Speaking in an interview with Marie Claire Australia Nicole Kidman revealed that when Keith Urban needs to blow off some steam he searches the internet for motor vehicles. "I'll know when he's stressed 'cause he's googling cars," she said.
After winning an award at an Australian country music festival, Urban signed with EMI Music Australia and released his self-titled debut album in 1991. He signed with Capitol Nashville in the late 1990s and has remained with them throughout his American career.
From the start, Urban has had the final say on what songs to record and release, thanks to securing what he calls "the right record deal." He's never been told by anyone at his label which songs to include on an album, a choice he deeply values. Urban believes it's better to fail with decisions that are entirely his own than to succeed under someone else's direction.
Despite his vast catalog and chart-topping success, Keith Urban finds his greatest thrill not in past achievements but in the prospect of "the next song." In an interview with Today, he revealed he's driven by an insatiable curiosity for what's ahead, describing the process of writing and performing as a journey toward an elusive, euphoric "high."
During an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Keith Urban shared a deeply personal experience that has shaped his commitment to philanthropy. When he was just 10 years old, his family home burned down, leaving them with nothing. This devastating event highlighted the crucial role of organizations like the Red Cross and Goodwill in helping families rebuild their lives.
The experience has stayed with Urban, inspiring him to give back to his community and beyond. A notable example is his support for the 2024 Hurricane Helene relief efforts, when he and Nicole Kidman joined forces with Luke Combs to raise $27 million.
