Keith Urban’s Awkwardly Tense First Meeting With Toby Keith (And How It Got Better, Luckily)

Being the new kid on the block would be tough under any circumstances, but as Keith Urban’s first experience with Toby Keith showed the Australian up-and-comer, being the new kid on the block in the music business in the country music capital of the world over 9,000 miles away from home is even tougher. Honestly, you have to give Urban credit for sticking his neck out at all, no matter how awkward it felt.

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If he hadn’t, he might not have become the massive country star we know him as today. (And he might not have gotten the opportunity to make a better impression on Keith.)

Keith Urban Describes First Encounter With Toby Keith

Keith Urban, like so many other country stars, started out in Nashville as an aspiring songwriter. While his songs might have made it into a studio, he wasn’t necessarily the person performing them. It’s the same career track that other musical icons like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton took, too. For Urban, that songwriter-first, performer-second track connected him—albeit somewhat distantly—to Toby Keith.

Keith’s first Christmas album, Christmas to Christmas, came out in October 1995. The record featured cuts by Keith, Ronnie Rogers, and a newcomer to the songwriting circuit, all the way from Australia: Keith Urban. Urban, along with Vernon Rust, wrote “Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus,” which is the ninth track on Keith’s holiday album. So, when Urban spotted Keith out at a bar on Broadway in Nashville one night, he decided to go out on a limb and introduce himself.

What a shaky limb that was. “I’m in this bar, and I look over in the corner, and there’s Toby Keith, sitting on his own, drinking in the corner,” Urban recalled on Taste of Country Nights. “I said to a friend of mine, ‘It’s Toby Keith. I’m going to go over and introduce myself, you know, ‘cause I wrote a song. I had no deal, nothing, right? So, I went over, and I go, ‘Toby, hi, um, my name’s Keith Urban, and I think you recorded a song I wrote. The song was called “Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus.”” Urban added as an aside, “It was never gonna get cut. So, we were thrilled that he recorded it.”

Urban recalled Keith looking up with a “surly” expression and saying in his gruff, low voice, “Huh?”

An Awkward First Impression, Luckily Got Much Better

Toby Keith looking up from a beer to deliver a blunt, “huh?” would be enough to make most people back down from their attempt at a conversation. But Keith Urban was bright, young, and frankly, had nothing to lose. Keith had already put the song on his album, after all.

So, the Australian singer pushed Keith a little bit. “I said, ‘Oh, um, did you like the song?’” Adopting Keith’s baritone voice, Urban recalled him replying, “‘We cut it, man.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, yeah, no, thank you, thank you so much. Did you, I mean, you obviously write a lot of songs. It’s unusual for you to record an outside song. Did you like the song?” Keith replied, “‘We cut it, man.’ Then he just went back to his drink.”

While it certainly wasn’t the most amicable first encounter one could ever have, Toby Keith and Keith Urban continued to cross paths, especially as Urban’s own star began to rise. Their friendship even led them to a Steak ‘n’ Shake at 3 am during a 40th birthday celebration for Keith, during which we can only assume he was a bit more jovial than he was that night drinking alone at a bar on South Broadway.

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