Keith Urban Makes Music Connection

Keith Urban covers the May issue of Music Connection, discussing with the magazine everything from what it's like to live and work in Nashville, to how Bono and Sting helped him figure out what music is all about.

"Bono says his favorite songs are either about running to God or running from God," Keith tells Music Connection, quoting U2's frontman. "And I think from a love/spiritual/God standpoint, that's a pretty accurate way to put it. People are either talking about losing love or finding it."

When it's time to make an album, the country superstar keeps in mind a line he heard from the lead singer of the Police: "Sting said that you never finish an album, you just give up. That's pretty accurate."

Keith coins a new word to describe what's happening in his head when he's creating music.

"It's like I can 'audio'-lize things as opposed to visualize them," he says. "Trying to get that to come to fruition is sometimes impossible and it's very frustrating, but I think a lot of times art is in the attempt. That's why there's so much frustration involved."

But perhaps the biggest lesson Keith has learned during what he calls a "very interesting year," has been not getting caught up in everything that's been written about his marriage and his family. While he's out on tour, the singer says he stays in close communication with his loved ones in an effort to stave off any misinformation that makes its way to print or the Internet.

"Everybody's got hearsay, speculation, rumors...," says Keith. "You can take a picture and it can say any number of things depending on what's written underneath the picture. But the bottom line is, nine times out of 10 there's actually no relevance to my real life and what's actually really going on. My wife and I know exactly what's going on, my family knows what's going on, and I know what's going on. I just get on with it -- and everything else will be tomorrow's fish wrapping."

Keith tells Music Connection that the Internet has helped him develop a closer, "more one-on-one relationship" between himself and his fans. He says his own official website in particular has helped him stay focused on giving his fans clear and concise information about what's going on in his life and career.

"I've sort of been inundated with people wanting to talk about what I've gone through," says the singer, whose battle with substance abuse, along with his high-profile marriage to actress Nicole Kidman have become fodder for the tabloids.

"I didn't want to go about it in a sensationalized fashion, because that's not why I went through what I went through," he says.

Keith also gives props to Music City, and in particular the studios where he's made his records.

"[The] studios are great and there's a ton of them," he raves, while also acknowledging that Nashville has become a place that artists outside country music are living and working -- and getting along just fine, thank you.

"Kings of Leon recorded their record there, and I don't think I'd compare them to Tim McGraw recording his album there. There's a healthy competitiveness in the industry where you've got charts and there's only room for one No. 1 ... but I found Nashville to have a good camaraderie - artists playing on each other's records, touring with each other and speaking pretty well of each other."

Keith is currently on tour with a variety of comrades, including Sugarland, Glen Campbell, Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley, the Zac Brown Band and Lady Antebellum. Click here for a full list of tour dates.