Urban Branches out with Billboard-Topping Fuse

New Zealand-born country singer Keith Urban, 45, has been branching out musically – playing with the Rolling Stones and others, and fresh collaborations on his latest album, Fuse, which debuted on Billboard’s 200 Albums chart at No 1.

For the album, Urban worked with a cadre of producers and songwriters he’d never collaborated with before in hopes of bringing new energy to his music. Among them: Dr. Dre and Eminem associate Mike Elizondo, the R&B-pop production team of Stargate and Americana producers Butch Walker and Jay Joyce.

Urban has further expanded the sphere of influence he’s created since breaking onto the US country charts in 1999 by turning up on stages recently with the Rolling Stones, John Fogerty and Alicia Keys, among others.

“I’m a guitar player, and I love playing,” Urban said. “I love collaborating with all sorts of people. I not only learn about what they do but I learn about myself and see new things about what I do.”

“If I were a new artist, I don’t think I could have done this,” he said. “My record gets perceived differently because it’s not my first.”

“The thing I’m really, really drawn to is the balance of it all,” he said, noting the same issue comes up in balancing his career and personal life with his actress-wife, Nicole Kidman, and their two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret Kidman Urban.

Urban was born in Whangarei. He was raised in Queensland, Australia.