KEITH URBAN

James Brown might have once held the title of the hardest working man in showbusiness, but for one Saturday evening in mid-October, Keith Urban was giving him a run for his money. In London to promote his 2020 UK tour – his first in over a decade – most of us would have considered an appointment to perform on the BBC’s flagship primetime TV show, Strictly Come Dancing, to be more than enough for one night, but Urban had other plans. The guitarist had friends playing in town that night – South Carolina rockers Hootie & The Blowfish at the Apollo, and country superstar Brad Paisley at the O2 – and they both asked him if he wanted to join them on stage…

“Normally we’re all playing on the same night. So it’s rare that I get to see somebody play live, let alone get up and jump in as well,” Urban explains as we sit down with him in his penthouse suite overlooking an autumnal Hyde Park a few days later. “It was insane that two of my friends would be playing on the exact same night, at the exact same time. And both would text me to say, ‘Hey, can you come and sit in?’ I was like, ‘How do I make this work!?’

“I asked somebody what the drive time was from the Apollo over to the O2 and they’re like, ‘On a rainy Saturday night? Maybe 1:40 if you’re lucky!’ And then someone said, 'What about the tube? It's like 30 minutes!' So that’s how we did it!”

The notion of one of country’s biggest stars riding the Underground across town for a gig on a Saturday evening like he’s heading to an open-mic night might seem a little incongruous, and yet it fits. As we chat about his life and career, it becomes apparent that despite the fame, the Oscar-winner wife and the laundry list of awards, Urban remains very