school. I was playing guitar all the time, very distracted. I was playing in a band and I would play with them on the weekends and then I couldn’t play with them during the week because I had to go to school and they would play without me. And I said to my mom and dad, ‘If I quit school, I would be earning good money and learning my craft. And I’ve got a job and I could work a lot more.’ and so they agreed and I left school.
Did you imagine at 15 you would have the kind of career you have had for the last 30 years or so? No, I didn’t think that far ahead. I just wanted to be playing all the time. I knew that was my calling. It was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I didn’t think about what level I might be able to get to do it at. I wasn’t really writing a lot of songs. I was just playing in cover bands and just trying to get better and better at it and spent the next eight years or so doing that and finally went to America in my early 20s.
You’re very busy right now with the new record coming out? Yeah, surprisingly busy. I thought I was going to get some time off when touring got cancelled. I am very, very busy promoting the album.
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How long have you been in Australia – did you spend the whole summer there? No, we only got here about a month ago. My wife is shooting a film here so we relocated here while she shoots that film, which will be a couple of months.
Is it nice to be back in your home country for a bit? Yeah, my mother lives here and Nic’s mom lives here and her sister and all the cousins and nephews and everybody so it’s nice seeing some family.
You mention your mom in ‘Say Something’. Have you played the song to her yet? Yeah, she heard that song. Strangely enough, that first verse was written by Lindy Robbins, who is one of the other writers on the song. She had already written that verse. They hadn’t written a second verse or a bridge or anything. And I came on board to finish the song. But I loved the whole opening of the song and where it was going. I just wanted to take that second verse and make it even a little more personal to me. So that one became more about the way I was raised.
How were you raised? With good values? A good work ethic? My mom and dad both had very good work ethic. And I was very lucky to have very supportive parents for my music, because I quit school when I was 15 and was playing in a band five nights a week from the age of 15, learning my craft.
Looking back now, do you think it was a good idea to leave school at 15? Yep. I would have left sooner if I could. I just wasn’t very good at
So your daughters are 12 and 10 now – if they ask to leave school at 15 what will you say to them? I don’t know. I’ll let you know if that happens but I went to a public school and it was very, very basic. My mom and dad could see I wasn’t really learning a whole lot and they could see that I was probably going to learn more by getting out into the world and just getting on with my life. And so I think I was very lucky to do that. But I’d also been playing guitar since I was six years old. So they knew this wasn’t something that was going to wear off in a couple of years and then I’d be jobless. They could see I was dedicated and was going to make it work.
Do you still have the guitar you played when you were six? I do. I’ve lost the neck of it somehow but I have the body still.
Where is it now? In Nashville. I store all my guitars at a warehouse. I don’t know how I lost the guitar neck, but I did over the years.
Have you been able to help your daughters with home schooling at all during lockdown? Me? I’m not very good. I’m glad there are people far more
educated and equipped and smarter than I am to do that. They’ve been doing a lot of remote schooling, of course, like a lot of people have over the world. And they’ve been doing good with it.
Are they fans of your songs? Do they like the new record? I think it’s hard when you’re when your dad is a musician because it’s your dad, you know, and same with mom. But I think they’re fascinated by what we do, they’re pretty interesting, cool jobs for a mom and dad to have. I’ve taken them out on the road, of course, a lot. So they love the tour bus, the tour bus is a big hit.
How much have you missed the tour bus this year? I miss touring so much. I mean, since I was 15, I’ve always played. Maybe the longest I’ve had off was three months. Maybe. But months and months like this year and rolling into next year. I’ve never seen anything like it, of course. It’s a very strange feeling.
You’re very lucky to have citizenship of three countries – that’s quite a unique thing? Really citizenship in any country right now where there’s kind
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CE L EBRIT Y INTERVI EW K E I TH URBAN
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