ABC/Paula LoboTuesday in Nashville, just days after bringing his Ripcord World Tour to his hometown, Keith Urban celebrated the success of his latest #1, “Wasted Time,” with a party on the rooftop of Music City’s new Westin hotel.
The Australian superstar admits playing the capital of country music can be a bit of a spectacle.
“It’s very much a hometown feeling in the crowd, and the guest list is through the roof!” he says. “It’s like putting on a wedding… you’re thinking who to invite. It’s like, well, where do you — you just invite everybody… and it’s a great feeling!”
One of the big upsides is that there are always plenty of potential special guests, though Keith is careful about leaning on his friends.
“It’s always a big ask, asking artists to come out on their one night off, and go and do the thing that they’re doing every other night of the week, you know. I always appreciate that enormously, when artists are willing to do that.”
Friday night, Eric Church sat in, performing his recent chart-topper “Record Year,” as well as his hit collaboration with the “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer.
“Eric was amazing,” Keith recalls, “because I said to him, ‘We have “Raise ‘Em Up” in our show, but we finish with it.’ And I said, ‘You’re comin’ down, you don’t need to sit around all night, we’ll just do [it] early.” He goes, ‘No, just leave it where it is, I want to see your show.’… He’s a good dude. Good people!”
This weekend, Keith plays the final dates on the American leg of his trek with Brett Eldredge and Maren Morris, before heading to his native Australia with Carrie Underwood in December.
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