“I’d Be in Jail”: Keith Urban Opens up on Music Career, John Mellencamp Inspiration

Keith Urban is one of country music’s biggest stars. He has four Grammys and a trophy case full of CMA and ACM Awards. Additionally, Urban has launched 18 singles to the top of the charts. In the beginning, the New Zealand-born musician didn’t know which path to follow musically. Then, John Mellencamp opened his eyes.

Urban has worked his way through the ranks of the music business twice. First, he did it in Australia. Then, he moved to Nashville and started a new climb to the top. However, when he started he found himself torn between two worlds. He didn’t know if he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his rock or country influences. Recently, he appeared on Criss Angel’s Talking Junkies podcast. During their conversation, he revealed how Mellencamp helped him find his path.

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“I love John Mellencamp. Huge John Mellencamp fan. And, he did a record called Lonesome Jubilee,” Urban recalled, who joked he’d probably “be in jail” if he wasn’t doing music. “Prior to that he’d had Hurts So Good, more straight rock. Then, through Scarecrow he brings in some fiddles and few little organic things. Then, he does Lonesome Jubilee and he’s got accordion, fiddle, acoustic guitars, but he’s go this rock rhythm section still.”

Urban’s “ah-ha” moment came when he attended a stop on Mellencamp’s tour for the album. Before going to that show he was lost. “I’d been like ‘Man am I country or am I rock?’ I don’t know what I am, what I’m supposed to be doing,” he explained. “I went to that concert. He walked onstage. The band was phenomenal. And I saw and heard all that fusion and it was literally like a light went off. I was like, ‘I get it. Don’t think about genre or anything. Just pull all the thing you love, your soup, man. Your gumbo. Just make your gumbo.”

Mellencamp released The Lonesome Jubilee in 1987, before he dropped “Cougar” from his name. It went on to become one of his most successful albums. In a 1987 Creem Magazine feature, he talked about what made the record so great. “Now, in the past it was always ‘Let’s make it up as we go along’—and we did make some of The Lonesome Jubilee up as we went album. But, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted to sound like,” he said. They knew what they wanted the record to sound like before he penned the songs. They stuck with that vision from beginning to end.

(Featured Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)