While performing with Vince Gill at their All For The Hall benefit concert on April 10, 2012, in Nashville, Keith Urban received a surprise invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry. Gill, along with fellow Opry members Rascal Flats, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Diamond Rio, surprised Urban onstage with a duffel bag containing an official WSM Radio Grand Ole Opry microphone stand as his official invitation.
“I’m shocked,” said Keith after unzipping the bag and revealing his Opry invite. “What a huge honor and how beautiful to have this happen tonight.”
He continued, “I will always remember the first time I played the Opry. Seeing this stand and standing in the circle was an extraordinarily surreal moment. So this right here is just a whole other stratosphere. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Coming from Australia, Urban also remembered the reaction he’d get from labels when he first moved to Nashville in 1992 and was shopping his demos around town.
“I got a lot of strange looks,” joked Urban.
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Nearly two weeks later, Urban performed his hits “Days Go By,” released in 2004, and “Without You” from 2010 at the Opry while his wife, Nicole Kidman watched from backstage. After his performance, Urban was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on April 21, 2012, by Trace Adkins, Josh Turner, and Opry General Manager Pete Fisher.
Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Urban became the first artist born outside North America to become an Opry member, more than a decade after releasing his self-titled U.S. debut in 1999.
“Thank you very much,” said Urban, during his induction speech.”Yee haw. That is awesome.” Urban went on to thank his parents, who “got me into country music and drove me around to all the gigs,” along with Opry members, his wife, daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, and his fans.
“To stand in this circle is the most phenomenal thing,” Urban added. “I just want to thank the Opry for this honor, but also the responsibility. This is a responsibility that I take deep to the heart of me…I honor the history of country music, but I absolutely fully dedicate myself to the future of country music, as well.”
Slim Dusty and Ricky Skaggs
Decades before becoming a member, Urban’s Opry debut performance was as part of the backing band for the late Australian country artist Slim Dusty. “The first time I played the Opry was actually backing another guy named Slim Dusty, who’s no longer with us, but a legendary Australian country artist who was invited to perform,” recalled Urban in an interview.
“He used the little band I had called The Ranch,” added Urban. “He just basically used us as his backing band, and I remember standing back there and thinking it’d be great if I could get up there sometime and sing into that microphone.”
Urban also recalled his debut at the Opry as a solo artist, along with the first artist he met there: Ricky Skaggs.
“Really the first guy I met out there when I went out early on was probably Ricky Skaggs because I was such a Ricky fan,” Urban remembered. “And he was just so approachable and easy to talk to, and I was just really such a fan that I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m talking to Ricky Skaggs. This is so cool,’ but that was the behind-the-scenes vibe at the Opry. It’s just like that. Everybody’s just so approachable and laid-back.”
Photo: Tony R. Phipps/WireImage
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