Urban talked to ET about his Las Vegas residency, new music and his new app where he helps people learn how to play guitar.
Keith Urban is headed back to Las Vegas. ET spoke with the country music star, whose Vegas residency, "Keith Urban Live," returns to Caesars Palace on Friday, about what to expect with his Vegas return, new music and how he and his wife, Nicole Kidman, spend their time in Sin City when he's not performing.
"We got songs that didn't exist when we started the residency over a year and a half ago now," Urban revealed of the new music he has in store for Vegas fans. "We were working on it, and of course that came out in September, so we got a bunch of new songs to play."
And Urban is happy to be back in the center of it all, in a city that is just how he likes it: "rowdy."
"Getting to play here is fantastic. It's not somewhere way off the beaten track, you know, it's right in the center of it all, so it feels great," he told ET. "It's drunk and rowdy, and just how I like it, truly."
Fans will get the chance to get "drunk and rowdy" to Urban's latest single, "Wild Hearts," which tells the story of the Australian-born singer following his dreams and becoming a global superstar.
"Just for me, and my own journey, coming from Australia to here, and following my dreams, really, I mean, it's that simple," Urban said of the meaning behind his newest song. "And, following them in the face of people saying there's no way you're ever gonna do that."
When he's not performing, the GRAMMY-winning country crooner is spending his time with his wife, taking in all the city's top restaurants and hitting a few slot machines too.
"There's a lot of good things to do, there's a lot of good restaurants here actually," Urban said. And while he's not a gambler, he told ET that Kidman knows exactly what she's doing when she hits the casino floor.
"I don't gamble," he shared. "It would not go well, my wife's much better at it than me, so I leave it to her. She knows how to do it."
Kidman's not just a great support for Urban on the slots, she's been a "life-changing" influence in his life.
"Life-changing, life-changing, absolutely," he said of the Nine Perfect Strangers star.
But that's not the only life-changing thing the singer has experienced. He told ET that his first-ever concert at age 5 is what kickstarted his love of music and led him to where he is now.
"I don't know if I saw this person up on stage and thought, 'Oh, I want to do that' or I saw that person on stage and something inside went, 'That’s what you're going to do,'" he explained of the Johnny Cash concert he went to as a kid.
He continued, "When you're 5 and you're amongst all these people, and it's really loud and boisterous and loud, and you go into this big arena and it's even louder, it's deafening and then this figure walks out on stage with a guitar and lights go down, it gets even louder and then he starts playing a song, and you could hear a pin drop, and you're like, what happened? How did he do that? Crazy."
It's something that stuck with Urban, and inspired him to create an app where people could get that same feeling, all by just learning how to play guitar with his new app, Urban Guitar by Yamaha.
"I want people to want to play, but it's intimidating and they don't know where to start, you know?" he said of the in-app experience. "And even if you can figure out what sort of guitar to get, 'how do I learn to play?' and so I wanted to put that all together for everybody."
And with patience, Urban believes anyone who wants to learn to play, can, even if he admits, it's hard at first.
"If you want to play and you're interested and you can be patient, and just step into it and have no timeline, that's the big thing right?" Urban added about what users can get from the app. "What's the rush? Just take your time with it. Do it when want to do it, when you can do it and take your time."
He continued, "Playing guitar is hard. It's not like I don't know what is easy when you're beginning, but going at it with a very slow pace and having somebody who knows that every single part of this is weird and unusual at first, but you get used to it after a while."
Fans can hear Urban's new single, "Wild Hearts," live during his Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Sept. 17-25. And those who want to play along with him, can download the Urban Guitar by Yamaha app and give guitar a go.
Tune in to tonight's episode of Entertainment Tonight for more of ET's interview with Urban.
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