and you just want to break out. We wanted to write this song for everybody in all the different ways we’ve become confined - that’s really what it’s about.
It’s quite different to your own life situation. You’ve been in a great relationship for 15 years. Sure but I don’t just write about my life now, though. That would be a limited kind of thing. I write about my entire life and there’s a lot to write about, infinite things to write about. But also, I get stuck. I get imprisoned of my own making - doubts, insecurity, low self-esteem, whatever it is and I need to break out of that as well and sometimes a song will do it. Sometimes you just hear a song and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s it. I’m done with this’ - you know?
So music is therapy, your own music and other people’s. It works for you? Absolutely. Sometimes the song is the only thing that speaks at a certain time in life. I mean, how many of us have been driving in a car and a song comes on and you’re like, ‘That’s how I feel right there. That person knows how I feel.’
In ‘One Ttoo Many’ you say ‘I spend all my money drinking on my own’ –do you look back on your own life there? Yeah, I did a lot of that and it’s a big part of a lot of my audience’s life. When I go out and play and tour, people can relate to this song. I love this song. I’m glad that I got to sing with Pink on this and a good example of a song that I can’t wait till we tour again to start playing it live.
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Has Pink been a friend for many years? No, she was somebody I really wanted to do something with and she’s one of the greats. She really is. She’s one of the great singers of our generation - period. Any singer would agree with that. She’s extraordinary. Through a friend of a friend, I was able to get the song to her and she loved it and it ended up on the record.
Have those heavy drinking nights long gone for you now – you live quite a healthy life these days don’t you? Yeah – much healthier.
So is there still room to improve on healthiness? Always, I mean, I’m just a work in progress.
You never seem to age at all though? Good zoom lenses right now I think! I just try and take as good care of myself as I can. I know that touring is the best way I stay in shape and I miss that part of it as well, because I’m not going to go and do two hours of cardio in a gym but we’ll do two hours of cardio on stage every night.
So how are you keeping fit right now? Just training fairly regularly and trying to get better sleep and eat a bit better than I used to and do all the right things and less of the wrong things.
‘Polaroid’ - is this a song about how you and your wife and how you fell in love? Well, I didn’t write this song. Some really great writers in Nashville wrote it and sent it to me. I loved the song right away. I obviously love writing songs, but every now and then I hear a song that just speaks to me. ‘Polaroid’ was one of those songs. I have a lot of photos from my early days in Nashville. So it’s also just about all of my history and the fact that it was all sort of captured, it’s of a
time, but the fact that in this song that this particular couple could meet and get photographed and who would have imagined that all these years later they’d still be together? I think that’s a really, really beautiful story and a great lyric.
So it’s not 100 per cent your story, but it’s part of your story in the song? All of these songs are part of my story - either literally or metaphorically. There’s something in them that speaks to me and my life, either now or, you know, leading up to this point.
You sing, ‘Who would have thought after all these years we would still be together’ - do you sometimes think that about your own relationship? You both seem still very much in love? Yeah. I feel like boyfriend and girlfriend, that’s how I feel, that doesn’t change.
How do you keep that feeling going so strong over so many years? Doing everything I did at the beginning when we started dating. I do the same things, because it felt good then, it feels good now. You know, it’s tending the garden, right? You know, hopefully you love gardening just as much as you love looking at a garden and the work you do at the beginning, you’ve got to keep doing, you get to keep doing. Or you don’t and you just let the garden grow over. And then you complain that the garden is not very interest- ing and you go and look for another garden. But I maintain this garden and love every bit of it.
So what sort of things did you do at the beginning? What is your advice to guys out there looking for a great long-term relationship? No advice. It’s different for everybody. I know it works for us and everybody has got to find what works for them.
‘Better than I am’ is a song that sounds a little like Crowded House – were they involved in the writing? No, I wrote that with a guy in London called Eg White, he’s a tremendous songwriter. I first heard of him when Adele put out ‘Chasing Pavements’ on her very first album ‘19’ and I just love, love that song. I saw his name on the credits and I thought I hope I get to write with him one day. I finally met him in London and this is the first and only song we wrote.
Is Adele one of your favourite singers? She’s one of the greats too. Absolutely. One of the absolute greats, I mean, a voice like that comes along very, very rarely, and she is extraordinary. We went to saw her in concert and I was absolutely blown away at her live. So good.
Finally, is it true you’re going to be returning to ‘The Voice Australia’? I literally saw that online. I read it and couldn’t believe it. I’ve never been asked by anybody. It’s never come up. We haven’t been con- tacted by them. So I was completely shocked to see this. So obvi- ously it’s just rumour.
But sometimes rumours come true? Sometimes. But I’m so focussed on touring next year in 2021. I hope we get to do that. Fingers crossed.
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CE L EBRIT Y INTERVI EW K E I TH URBAN
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