Trip to rehab radically reroutes Keith Urban's course

By Randy Lewis
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sunday, November 05, 2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —

Here's how things were supposed to go when Keith Urban's new album came out Nov. 7: The handsome country star would be all over network TV promoting it, radio programmers would be hotly scanning it for hit singles, fans would be gobbling up copies and his record company would be toasting a breakout success.

And why not? Everything, it seemed, had been going so right lately for the New Zealand-born, Australia-reared musician, whose fervent wish until just recently was to try out his new music for fans.

"A lot of the songs will be great to play live, especially in arenas where people sing along," Urban said while putting finishing touches on the album at a Nashville recording studio recently. "It's like being in a stadium with soccer crowds where everybody is chanting. I love that so much."

Now, the first thing everyone will be searching for in "Love, Pain and the whole crazy thing" will be clues — clues to what might have driven Urban, 39, back into rehab. This, the man who in just three years had gone from country wannabe to one of its brightest lights through a string of hit singles from two albums that have sold more than 3 million copies apiece.

Only four months ago, the country singer with a rock-star vibe married his home country's biggest movie star, Nicole Kidman, putting what seemed like a fairy-tale coda to a life story peppered with struggle.

"All this seems so rolled up together to put Keith at the forefront of country music," said Michael McCall, a writer-editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and veteran music journalist. "He's certainly one of the format's biggest stars, and there's no feeling that his career has crested at all or peaked yet."

But less than two weeks before the album's release date, Urban stunned fans and even some in his inner circle by checking into an unidentified rehabilitation treatment center, dredging up flashbacks to his decade-old battle with drugs and alcohol, one most people thought he had won.

All Urban has said publicly is a short statement issued through a spokesman, then posted on his Web site. "I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones that love and support me," the statement said in part. "One can never let one's guard down on recovery, and I'm afraid that I have."

His manager, Gary Borman, said Urban's goal is to address his dependency permanently.

"He's a very strong guy, a very disciplined guy, and he thought he could do it on his own," Borman said. "But nobody can, and that's it."

In his Oct. 20 announcement, Urban scrapped all public appearances for the immediate future. That included what was to be a featured performance Monday on the ABC telecast of the annual Country Music Association Awards show in Nashville. Gone, too, are several other high-profile network TV appearances. Plans for the record release are moving forward, but Urban's absence from the picture leaves a big void.

"It's huge," Capitol Nashville President Mike Dungan said. "The biggest weapon in launching a record is the artist himself. We're losing our performance on the CMA Awards, a performance at halftime for a major TV football game, the 'Today' show, 'The Tonight Show.' "

In years past, heavy alcohol or drug use played a big part in the public image of some of the genre's biggest stars, including Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Not anymore. "Stars are expected to be healthier, more fit and more presentable than they were 20 or 30 years ago," McCall said. "Country music is very image-conscious today. People are expected to work really hard. It's really hard to be drunk or strung out and do as much work as they have to do now." At the same time, McCall added, "people recognize now that it's a disease, and going for treatment can be seen as a positive thing."

Dungan noted that many celebrities have bounced back from dependency struggles: "Kelsey Grammer had problems, Robin Williams had problems, and these were people in prime time with kid-friendly vehicles. I think people just expect there is a certain amount of this at any one time. You slip, you get into trouble, you get back up on your feet, and in the end, you're still an artist, still an entertainer, still someone who communicates in a way the audience responds to."

In fact, Urban's fans have quickly rallied behind him. Postings to KeithUrbanFans

.com and Country Music Television's fan forum sites have been almost universally supportive.

"I am so proud of Keith for recognizing a problem and getting himself into rehab," a post at the CMT Web site read. "This is especially amazing to me as close as his album is to coming out. I hope he realizes that his life is more important than record sales."

Urban took much of 2006 off from touring to spend time with Kidman, whom he met in Los Angeles early last year, and to work on the new album. But a heavy schedule of promotional duties had been looming, and he is slated for a world tour next year, one that Dungan, Borman and others remain hopeful he will do.

Urban expanded his audience considerably since becoming a major concert headliner last year. Initially, his rugged good looks and penchant for earnest songs of romantic devotion and commitment endeared him primarily to women. But when husbands and boyfriends were dragged along to his concerts, many discovered him to be a dynamic performer, a skilled and expressive guitarist, a decent pianist and even a competent percussionist.

He plays all those roles on the new album, on which the rootsy tone of earlier efforts gives way in spots to an edgier classic-rock sound.

The expanded sonic palette grew out of two things: fan response during concerts and Urban and co-producer Dann Huff's penchant for experimen- tation.

"There's a courageousness in exploring," Urban said in August. "If nothing else, you end up back where you started. But at least you're seeing it from a different place."

Urban says his songs and albums constitute snapshots of his life at the moment he makes them, and some close to him think he may well turn to his latest life experience for inspiration down the line.

"I don't think he's let go of the introspection," Borman says. "There's still that struggle. There's always a little element of doubt, and any of us who are honest with ourselves can identify with that. I think there's a lot of that in him, and expressing that is part of the job of the artist who struggles to be honest."