Keith Urban seems to have it all. But he nearly lost everything in shocking fashion when an encounter with the paparazzi turned tragic.
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00:00Keith Urban seems to have it all, but he nearly lost everything in shocking fashion when an
00:05encounter with the paparazzi turned tragic.
00:08Keith Urban was born in New Zealand in October 1967, and his family relocated to Australia
00:14when he was just a toddler. His parents eventually settled in Brisbane, where they ran a small
00:18corner store and lived in a home behind the shop. Urban's wife, Nicole Kidman, told Glamour
00:23that Urban's childhood was anything but glamorous.
00:26He grew up on a farm, literally in a shed. They didn't have bedrooms. Four of them lived
00:31in a shed. They have talked of a community that came and helped their family because
00:35they had nothing."
00:36Poverty was one thing, but Urban also had to deal with his father's addiction issues,
00:40which led to violence. Urban told Rolling Stone,
00:43"'My dad was an alcoholic and I grew up in an alcoholic's house. My recollection is that
00:47he was a physical disciplinarian. I don't recall him ever telling me he loved me as
00:52a kid."
00:53When Urban became a father himself, he confronted his dad, but his father couldn't remember
00:57any of it.
00:58"'I don't think he was in denial. He genuinely had no recollection. Hitting you? I never
01:02did that.'"
01:04When Urban was just 9 years old, the family experienced another devastating hardship when
01:08their house burned down. While accepting the Artist Humanitarian Award from the country
01:12radio broadcasters in 2016, he revealed that his family's love of country music helped
01:17pull them through.
01:18We were all okay, but we lost all our belongings, which wasn't much, but it was everything we
01:23had. And without hesitation, our country music club immediately put on a fundraiser for us.
01:28And I saw that community sort of philanthropic heart in action, and it's had a, that definitely
01:35had a big impact on me of helping other people."
01:38That experience molded Urban, and contributed to his tendency toward philanthropy after
01:42he became a successful country star. In fact, whenever he's asked to explain or define what
01:47country music is, he finds himself being taken right back to that act of generosity.
01:52The one thing I believe to be true, no matter where you come from, is it's about community.
01:57Like his father, Urban also experienced issues with substance abuse. As Urban explained in
02:03his 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, that became increasingly problematic once he moved
02:08to Nashville in the early 1990s. His drug usage took a turn when a roommate asked if
02:13he wanted to freebase cocaine.
02:15"...and then one day he offered me this massive pipe. I'd never had it. It looked good, so
02:19I took it. Things didn't immediately go pear-shaped, but that was the beginning of it."
02:24As Urban encountered early frustrations while trying to launch his career in the country
02:28music capital of the world, that only served to fuel his use of drugs and alcohol.
02:32"...I stepped up my drinking. I started doing more drugs. The whole back end of the 90s
02:37were just awful."
02:38"...I have a tendency to get depressed to the point where I find solace in less than
02:45healthy things."
02:47How bad did it get? According to Urban's one-time songwriting partner, Vernon Rust, his use
02:52of cocaine escalated to a truly shocking degree. In Rust's tell-all book, Fake News, he alleged
02:58that Urban once snorted more than $320,000 worth of cocaine, writing,
03:03"...we lived in the studio. We did a lot of coke and stayed up for days."
03:08By the late 1990s, Urban couldn't ignore the degree to which drugs and alcohol were ruling
03:13his life. He told Rolling Stone,
03:15"...when I was on stage I felt good, but if I was not on stage I was very, very insecure.
03:20I felt like I didn't have much of anything to offer. I was just an alien."
03:24In order to recapture the feeling he had while on stage when he wasn't performing, he turned
03:28to cocaine and ecstasy. But eventually, the substances that once made him feel good only
03:33served to make him feel worse. Recognizing that he needed to make a change, he made the
03:38difficult decision to seek help, and in 1998, he checked himself into rehab and got sober.
03:44Speaking with The Times, Urban said he doesn't have any problem with other people enjoying
03:48whatever they want, but joked that he couldn't for legal reasons, if nothing else.
03:52"...I just realized I'm allergic to it. Someone said, you have an allergy? What happens when
03:57you drink? And I said, I break out in cuffs."
04:00Urban met future wife Nicole Kidman in 2005 at a Los Angeles gala paying tribute to accomplished
04:06Australians. After dating for a year, Kidman and Urban got married in June 2006, with the
04:12nuptials held in Sydney, Australia.
04:14While the marriage has been long-lasting and seemingly happy, Urban has admitted that he
04:18had a difficult time connecting with others. That, he explained in an interview with Variety,
04:23had to do with the way he was raised, particularly due to the somewhat distant relationship he
04:28had with his father. Discussing his single, Say Something, Urban said,
04:31"...I pivoted it to be more personal about the way I was raised and the fact that there's
04:35times I wish I said sorry to somebody before they drifted out of my life or I love you
04:40to someone who passed away and I never got the chance."
04:43He credited his relationship with Kidman for being able to better communicate his feelings
04:48to his loved ones.
04:49It took marrying Nick to learn all about that, learn about how to really communicate properly
04:53and speak and say things.
04:55"...I love being married to Nick, of course."
04:58He also expressed his gratitude that his daughters wouldn't face those struggles thanks to their
05:03more emotionally open family life.
05:05"...I'm glad that our girls are in a very different environment where we talk about
05:08things all the time."
05:10In 2006, just a few months after marrying Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban suffered a relapse.
05:16While he never disclosed precisely what that entailed, it was serious enough that he checked
05:20himself into the Betty Ford Center.
05:22He said in a statement,
05:23"...one can never let one's guard down on recovery, and I'm afraid that I have."
05:27He exited the facility after three months of treatment in January 2007, and subsequently
05:32revealed on his website why he chose to spend an extended amount of time in rehab.
05:37"...Learning about abstinence was one thing, but then there was all this other area of
05:41my life to start learning about.
05:43And so 30 days became 60, and 60 days became 90.
05:46And with each week that passed, I found myself really learning how to surrender."
05:50Given that he was a newlywed just months into his marriage, the timing didn't seem great.
05:55But Urban later revealed on Andrew Denton's interview that it was Kidman who orchestrated
05:59his return to rehab.
06:00"...My wife put an intervention together and it was — it was divine.
06:04I mean, divine intervention.
06:06But it's true.
06:07It really was.
06:08It was love in action, and the timing was absolutely divine."
06:11"...The path that I'm on is, uh, it's one that's — it's one I wished I could've been
06:16on a long time ago."
06:17Urban's live performances are characterized by high energy and good times.
06:21Sadly, a 2021 show in Ohio's Put-In Bay turned tragic when Urban's longtime tour production
06:28manager, Randy Baja Fletcher, suffered a fatal accident prior to the start of the performance.
06:34According to the Port Clinton News-Herald, Fletcher fell off the stage and suffered critical
06:38injuries.
06:39He was airlifted to a nearby hospital, but died the following day.
06:43He was 72 years old.
06:45Following Fletcher's death, Urban issued a statement in tribute, writing,
06:48"'Some people ask, are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty kind of person?'
06:52Baja's view was, "'What a beautiful glass.'
06:55I loved him.
06:56We all loved him, and I'm grateful he chose us as his road family for 10 years."
07:01Celebrities are often chased by paparazzi, and those pursuits can sometimes become fraught.
07:06They can also go horribly awry, as was the case with the fatal accident that took the
07:10life of Princess Diana.
07:12Urban has certainly had his issues with paparazzi, and he's also experienced some frightening
07:17and potentially life-threatening situations because of them.
07:20In October 2007, Urban was driving his motorcycle to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Sydney,
07:26Australia, when a photographer followed him, also riding a motorcycle.
07:30As Urban was being chased, he got into an accident while trying to avoid hitting an
07:34oncoming vehicle.
07:35Urban said in a statement,
07:36"...while out riding to an AA meeting, a time when my privacy is especially important to
07:41me, I felt myself being pursued.
07:43I sped up and in an effort to elude an oncoming car which was making an illegal U-turn, saw
07:48no choice but to drop my bike."
07:50Luckily, Urban wasn't injured in the crash.
07:52He was also quick to give credit to the pursuing paparazzo for coming to his aid after the
07:57accident.
07:58"...In actual fact, my pursuer came to my assistance without taking photos and helped me from the
08:02road.
08:03I got home, got my car and continued on my way."
08:07Urban was driving to a Los Angeles-area charity gala in September 2014, where he was scheduled
08:12to perform, when he received some terrible news.
08:15His father-in-law, Dr. Anthony Kidman, had died in a Singapore hotel room after suffering
08:20a fall.
08:21Urban immediately canceled the show and took a private jet to Nashville in order to be
08:25with his wife during her time of grief.
08:27He subsequently issued a statement of apology on Facebook for his 11th hour cancellation.
08:32"...I'm so very sorry that I cannot perform this weekend.
08:35We are in a deep state of grief at the passing of Nick's father and are heading to Australia
08:39to be with family.
08:40We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for their love, prayers and
08:44support through this devastating loss."
08:46A few weeks later, Nicole appeared on NBC's Today and spoke with interviewer Maria Shriver
08:51about her father's unexpected death.
08:54She credited both her faith and her tight relationship with Urban for helping her pull
08:58through such a difficult time.
09:00"...I lost my father, which is a devastating thing for my family and myself right now.
09:04I'm lucky to have a rock of a husband and a strong faith.
09:07I have both those things."
09:09Urban certainly had issues with his father, but their relationship wasn't all bad.
09:14It was his dad, Robert Urban, whom he credited with introducing him to country music when
09:18he was just a kid, and to exposing him to the various musical influences that wound
09:23up shaping him as an artist.
09:25In late 2015, Keith dropped by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to check out
09:30an exhibit devoted to him.
09:31While being interviewed about the exhibit, he revealed that his father had been diagnosed
09:35with terminal cancer and was in hospice care.
09:38"...He's probably only got a few weeks, if that.
09:40I've just been dealing with that the last couple of days.
09:43This has all come at a very strange time where it's typical of a career that has extreme
09:47highs and extreme lows all often at the exact same time."
09:51Keith's estimate was, tragically, far too optimistic.
09:55Just a few days later, he announced that Robert had died, saying in a statement to Us Weekly,
09:59"...his long battle with cancer is now over and he is finally at peace."
10:04Keith Urban is unabashed about his tendency to cry regularly.
10:08In fact, he told Rolling Stone back in 2016 that he actually encourages himself to do
10:13it, more for his mental health than anything else.
10:16"...When I haven't cried in a while, I can tell I get pent up.
10:19Then maybe once a month I have a good cry, one big avalanche of a torrential downpour,
10:24and I feel amazing for weeks afterward.
10:26The streets are cleaned, the skies are blue, there's no humidity, and it's beautiful."
10:30According to Urban, it doesn't take a whole lot to make him break into tears.
10:34As he explained in an interview with Andrew Denton's Interview, his emotions continue
10:38to accumulate over things big and small.
10:41Eventually, he reaches a point at which he simply can't hold them back anymore, and the
10:45dam literally bursts.
10:46I mean, little things — the passing of time, kids growing up, the loss of friends, loved
10:51ones — for all manner of reasons.
10:54All of it.
10:56I mean, it's beautiful.
10:57It's beautiful.
10:58It's beautiful.
10:59It's beautiful.
11:00It's beautiful.
11:01It's beautiful.
11:02It's beautiful.
11:03It's beautiful.
11:04It's beautiful.
11:05It's beautiful.
11:06It's beautiful.
11:07It's beautiful.
11:08It's beautiful.
11:09It's beautiful.
11:10It's beautiful.
11:11It's beautiful.
11:12It's beautiful.
11:13It's beautiful.
11:14It's beautiful.
11:15It's beautiful.
11:16It's beautiful.
11:17It's beautiful.
11:18It's beautiful.
11:19It's beautiful.
11:20It's beautiful.
11:21It's beautiful.
11:22It's beautiful.
11:23It's beautiful.
11:24It's beautiful.