Keith Urban Snaps Back At Fans Reading “Too Much” Into His Lyrics After Nicole Kidman Divorce
By Erin Whitten
Fed up with scrutiny from the media, Keith Urban reportedly asked his fans to “stop reading into sh- -” in his song lyrics. The country star has addressed recent speculation about changes he made to his onstage lyrics, during the middle of his divorce from Nicole Kidman. Urban appeared to tell his audience that they should not read into his performance as hidden commentary on their relationship. The singer stopped during the High and Alive Tour’s final night in Nashville on October 17, before his 2003 hit “You’ll Think of Me.” “I’ve been covering like this for a long time,” Urban told the audience before resuming his song. “Stop reading sh – – into it.”
During the performance in Nashville, Urban had made multiple changes to his lyrics. “Take your space and take your reasons” became “all your bullshit reasons,” to a cheer from the crowd. And instead of, “But you’ll think of me,” he sang, “But I betcha think about me!” in the next part of the chorus. Urban, 57, who is known for his casual charisma and off-the-cuff stage presence, made clear that he’s been adjusting his songs for years. Yet his recent changes to lyrics that mention his wife, less than two weeks after Kidman filed for divorce from him, has only drawn more speculation over how the songs compare to his offstage emotions.
Urban and Kidman, who were married in June 2006, had been together for 19 years when Kidman filed for divorce from the singer on September 30. In the paperwork, the 51-year-old actress cited “irreconcilable differences” between them. The couple have two daughters together, Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14. Since the announcement of the divorce, both have kept up a composed public front. Kidman, who is not speaking to press about her divorce, recently told Harper’s Bazaar that she tends to look on the bright side when challenges come up in her life, saying, “You go, ‘Oh, I’ve been here before. I actually know how to handle this now.’”
His fans also noticed when he made changes to the lyrics of another song that fans felt was about his marriage to Kidman. Urban, on September 27 in Omaha, Nebraska, sang his 2016 single “The Fighter” with guitarist Maggie Baugh. The song, which was originally a duet with Carrie Underwood that was inspired by Urban’s early relationship with Kidman, includes the lyric, “When they’re tryna get to you, baby I’ll be the fighter.” He changed the word “baby” to “Maggie” and added on, “I’ll be your guitar player.” The moment, shared by Baugh on Instagram before the divorce was made public, has since gone viral.
As he tours and deals with this new phase of his life, the singer has remained in high spirits, finding humor even in references to Kidman. During the Nashville show, when a fan shouted to Urban that her name was “Nicole,” the singer tumbled to the floor in feigned shock, and his audience laughed along. For now, Urban’s message seems to be one of transparency in his life, but that his lyrics are about the music and his life, not the headlines.
