Keith Urban is a devoted father to two teenage girls but the country superstar has now revealed that he had to intentionally and thoughtfully “break the chain” to ensure he did not raise his daughters in the same environment in which he grew up.
Keith was born in New Zealand, and moved to Nashville with the support of his father who fostered his love for music. But his father was also an abusive alcoholic, and Keith has now told SiriusXM that although he thought he had processed the grief of his father’s 2015 passing, during recording for the new song, titled “Break The Chain” he broke down in tears.
“I would never in a million years [have] thought that I was still processing that, or working through that in any way, but apparently, I’m still working on that, and I got to the second verse of this song and I make a loose mention about my dad in this thing and I’m sitting on the couch and I just burst out crying,” he said adding that his producer in the room simply acknowledged the tears meant that what he was writing was “true” and it allowed him to stay in that head space as he finished the song.
However, Keith went on to say that the song is not “a sad song,” and that he hopes to end his upcoming album with the track because it “captures what I think about my own journey, which is that it’s not my fault where I come from… but it is my responsibility to do something about that… and [not] perpetuate whatever that was”.
“I haven’t done it to the degree that I want to,” he added, sharing that he remains “a work in progress” but that it is his “responsibility moving forward”.
Keith and Nicole Kidman married in 2006 and he had already been in and out of rehab twice. He relapsed months into their marriage, which is when Nicole staged an intervention that, in 2016, Keith said changed his life forever.
“I caused the implosion of my fresh marriage,” he recalled to Rolling Stone. “It survived, but it’s a miracle it did. I was spiritually awoken with her. I use the expression, ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction.”
They welcomed their first daughter Sunday Rose on July 7, 2008, in Nashville., and their second, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogate on December 28, 2010.
Both girls made their red carpet debuts in 2024 as they joined their father and extended family in honoring Nicole who received the AFI Life Achievement Award Gala.
