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Keith Urban had plenty of reasons to celebrate on Monday. Not only was a #1 party already planned to celebrate his hit “The Fighter,” he also learned his latest single, “Coming Home,” had ascended to the top of the chart.
“Coming Home” was both inspired by Merle Haggard’s 1968 classic “Mama Tried” and includes a sample of the song’s signature guitar lick, making the legend a co-writer on the song. That gives the Country Music Hall of Famer his first #1 since 1987’s “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star.”
When he got the news, Keith immediately reached out to Haggard’s widow and youngest son, who’d both given their blessing for the posthumous collaboration.
“That’s a huge thing…” Keith says of the #1 with his hero. “They were the first people I texted when I found out… Theresa and Ben were the first two people I reached out to to say thank you. That meant the world to me.”
Meanwhile at Monday’s party for “The Fighter” at The Back Corner in Nashville, Carrie Underwood joined Keith to perform the song he co-wrote while in London as his wife Nicole Kidman was working.
He revealed “The Fighter” was influenced by two very different songs.
“I was listening to Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor singing ‘Let’s Marvin Gaye and get it on…’ and I was like, ‘Man…I need to write a duet…”
“The very next thing I thought about was ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meat Loaf…” Keith continues, “The reason I loved that song was because they talk back and forth to each other… Literally it was a conversation…I thought it’d be great to write a call and response thing between a guy and a girl.”
“The Fighter” reached #1 the first week of August in 2017.
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