In a new interview, the 'One Too Many' crooner also opens up about the reason why he initially passed on the single written by Jennifer Wayne, Brad Tursi and Eric Paslay.
- Oct 29, 2021
AceShowbiz - Keith Urban initially passed on his latest single, "Wild Hearts", because it didn't connect with him. The country star reveals he loved parts of the song, written by Jennifer Wayne, Brad Tursi and Eric Paslay, but wasn't sold on the lyrics, because they weren't personal enough.
"I loved the melody and particularly the back half of the chorus," he recently told Billboard. But there was one lyric that stayed with him and prompted Keith to give the track another listen.
"The line that sold it to me was, 'Can you hear me, all you lost ones/Who aren't really lost ones,' " he added. "I feel like I've heard so many songs talking about, 'Hey, you lost ones, don't worry. I'm with you. Let's all be lost together.' And for them (Wayne, Tursi and Paslay) to think of saying, 'Guess what? You're not even lost.' I was like, 'Oh, I love this song.' "
"The verses didn't speak to me, but I couldn't get the d**n chorus out of my head. I asked the writers if they were OK if I rewrote the verses."
Urban made it a much more personal song by including a memory of the first concert his late father took him to.
"I sat down at the kitchen table and made a very strong cup of coffee, and I was thinking, 'Well, where would I begin?' And literally the first thing that came to me was when my dad took my family to see Johnny Cash and I was five."
"The truth of my past made it so easy to write, because there's no doubt that was the beginning of my journey, that concert. I realized it was the thing that set me on the path into country music, into playing guitar on stage, singing and doing this thing probably to get my dad's attention from the very beginning."
"That's why there's that line, 'Saw my daddy stare.' When you're five years old and you see your father mesmerized by something - in a way that I don't think I had seen that gaze come to me - I'm like, 'I'm going to do that.' "
