Keith Urban describes turning point that led him to sobriety after years of addiction

Keith Urban is reflecting on the turning point in his years-long battle with drug addiction and alcoholism. 

During a recent appearance on "The Zane Lowe Show," the 57-year-old country star recalled the moment he knew he had to make a decision that would affect the rest of his life. 

"All through the years of drinking and doing drugs and all the rest of it, I always had this very specific voice inside of me that goes, 'One day, you're gonna come to a crossroads or a fork in the road, and it'll be the final one,'" Urban said. 

"'You're either gonna choose to get out of this s--- or you're never gonna get out of it. That day is gonna come and it won't be like well, if you mess it up this time, maybe next time. There won't be a next time. And you'll know when it comes,'" he continued. "This went on for years."

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The four-time Grammy Award winner explained that the critical junction came when his wife Nicole Kidman called an intervention for him in 2006 shortly after they married. 

"I knew that was it," Urban said. "I'm like, ‘Oh, this is that fork in the road.’"

The New Zealand native, who has been sober for almost 19 years, told Lowe that finally extricating himself from the throes of addiction and its repercussions was a relief. 

"I didn't come to America for that," Urban said. "I came to America to make music and record and tour, and grow as an artist and as a human being. I didn't come to America to end up in rehab and courthouses and s---. That's not why I came here, so I'm like, ‘What am I doing?’"

"But it took a few, a few shots," he admitted. 

Over the years, the "Somebody Like You" singer has been transparent about his journey to sobriety. 

In a 2021 interview with Rolling Stone, Urban recalled that his troubles began after he moved to Nashville from Australia, where he had previously released four hit albums. Urban explained that he felt like an outsider as a foreigner trying to make it in the country music scene.

"Nothing I’d done before meant s---," he says. "I felt like I was meant to be here, I had this absolute burning belief, but I was out of step with everything. I mean, what do you do when you’re doing your best, and it’s not enough?"

"When I was onstage, I felt good, but if I was not onstage, I was very, very insecure," he added. "I felt like I didn’t have much of anything to offer. I was just an alien."

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Urban recalled that a painful breakup with a woman who had told him that the "novelty of you has worn off" had fueled his descent into addiction.

"You might say, ‘Big deal.' But I was feeling insecure, and the fact that me and my accent would be a novelty to somebody cut me to the core," he said. "Oh, my God. Really bad. It devastated me. It was a turning point. After that, s--- started to really go awry." 

"I stepped up my drinking," he continued. "I started doing more drugs. Yeah, man. The whole back end of the Nineties were just awful."

After years as a struggling artist, Urban made his career breakthrough in 1999 when he released his self-titled debut album. The record, which notched four singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and was certified platinum, launched Urban into country music stardom.

Despite finding career success, Urban continued to struggle with his addictions to alcohol and drugs. He told Rolling Stone that he was in denial about the extent of his addiction after growing up with an alcoholic father.

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"It took me a long time to get sober," he said. "Took me a long time to recognize my alcoholism. A long time, because I didn’t drink like my dad, so I compared everything to him. So it just took a long time for me. But I was able to finally make the right choice in my life, that I wish my dad would have made."

In 2015, Urban's father Robert died after a long battle with prostate cancer.

After two failed stints in rehab, Urban was finally able to conquer his own addiction problems after he married Kidman. Four months into their marriage, Urban agreed to enter rehab again at the urging of Kidman and his loved ones.

"That's the point right there where she really should've just walked," Urban told Oprah Winfrey in 2010. "I'm just so glad she didn't, and she made a decision to turn around and initiate ultimately this intervention, and it was done in such a way that the love in that room at that moment was just right. I was like, 'Put the cuffs on, let's go.'"

In a 2020 appearance on the podcast "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard," Urban recalled that he realized he would lose the love of his life if he continued down the path that he was on. 

"She's just the one, that was it," Urban said of Kidman. "She's the one that I was searching for my whole life, and everything not only changed, but had to change in me if I was going to go that road."

"It was literally like, 'You either get this right now, or you are never, ever going to get it right. This is your one shot,'" he continued. "Really, it felt so obvious and I knew where I was going. I was going into the light finally. It was everything I was looking for and then some. I mean, beyond."

While speaking with Rolling Stone, Urban said that it was a "miracle" that their marriage survived. 

"I was spiritually awoken with her," the singer said of Kidman. "I use the expression ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction." 

Urban and Kidman, who will celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary on June 25, are parents to daughters Sunday, 16, and Faith, 14.

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In June 2024, Urban gave a heartfelt tribute to Kidman when she was honored with the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award. The couple's daughters joined their parents at the star-studded event, which marked the girls' red carpet debut.

During his speech at the ceremony, Urban recalled how Kidman's love for him persevered despite the rocky start to their marriage.

"We got married in June 2006, and barely four months into our marriage, my addictions that I’d done really nothing about, blew our marriage to smithereens, and I went into the Betty Ford Center for three months," he told the crowd.

"Four months into a marriage, I’m into rehab for three months, with no idea what was going to happen to us," he continued. "And if you want to see what love in action really looks like, give that a whirl."

"Nic pushed through every negative voice, I'm sure, even some of her own," Urban added. "And she chose love. And here we are tonight, 18 years later."

In a video of the speech, Kidman was seen wiping away tears while sitting in the audience next to Sunday and Faith.

Ahead of performing at the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards, Urban shared the secret to their successful union.

"It’s always family first," he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

"It's balanced, so it means it goes out of balance sometimes, and we just put it back in balance," Urban added. "It's never perfectly in balance, but we get it back on track."

Since becoming sober, Urban has helped other musicians who were struggling with addiction. In a 2017 interview with the Tennessean, country singer Brandtley Gilbert recalled how Urban saved his life when he was at his lowest point in his battle with alcohol and drugs. 

Gilbert told the outlet that he started drinking alcohol as a young boy and became addicted to painkillers when he was in high school. His addiction continued after he became a successful singer-songwriter in Nashville. 

In 2011, Gilbert developed pancreatitis after years of abusing drugs and alcohol. He ended up in the hospital and entered rehab after he was discharged. However, Gilbert had decided to check himself out after a few days against his doctors' advice. He recalled that his alcohol counselors and managers urged him to stay one more day so that he could meet with someone, who turned out to be Urban. 

"I remember thinking, these (expletives) are pulling out all the stops," Gilbert told the outlet.

The "Country Must Be Country Wide" singer said that he was "annoyed" upon first meeting Urban and was thinking to himself, "You don’t know me, man."

However, the two began to connect when Urban asked him about why he feared giving up drugs and alcohol. 

"I told him, I don’t think I can do my job," Gilbert recalled. "I don’t know if I can ever play a song at my shows without being (messed) up. Or writing, I was worried my songs wouldn’t be the same, that I wouldn’t be on everyone else’s level."

Gilbert remembered that Urban said he had once harbored those same doubts and anxieties and he also was afraid when he started performing without the crutch of drugs and alcohol. 

However, Gilbert told the Tennessean that Urban eventually found "he was a better performer, a better writer, he had more fun, he was a better husband and a better man without drugs and alcohol."

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Gilbert recalled that his conversation with Urban had a huge impact on him. 

"My whole world flipped," he said. "At that point, I was like, ‘All right.’"

The singer has now been sober since December 2011. 

"If it weren’t for him, I don’t know if I’d be sober or be in this business anymore," Gilbert said of Urban. 

"I’d probably be dead," he added. 

Last September, Urban released his latest album titled "High." In a press release, Urban revealed that the album's title was inspired by his interpretation of the multi-faceted meaning of the word "high."

"What makes you ‘high’ can mean whatever you want it to mean," he said. "It might be physical, spiritual, herbal, meditative, chemical or musical, but it’s definitely a place of utopia."

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He continues, "For me it’s my family, my friends, and this rollercoaster musical journey I’m on. Playing guitar, writing songs and the place where I always feel high — playing live. Every night I get a chance to bring an energy and a release to people."

During his appearance on Lowe's podcast, Urban shared that he was "intentionally" reclaiming the word "high" when naming his album. 

"The sort of dark humor of the word ‘high’ for a guy like me is just kind of too right on the money," he said. 

"It's a great word because it means so many things to different people. Different things," Urban continued. "It's meant different things to me through my life. It means something different now than it did 19 years ago."

Urban told Lowe that getting high to him means "playing on stage."

"It always has," he said. "That was always my safe place, was being on stage."

"My troubles were off-stage but being on stage was always my really happy place," he added.