Keith Urban has released the video for his latest single, “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.” It’s the first release from his forthcoming, as yet to be titled album.
You can catch him performing the song at the Minnesota State Fair Friday (August 28th) and at the Nebraska State Fair on Saturday (August 29th).
Keith Urban will take to Rockefeller Plaza this Friday morning to perform on The Today Show Summer Concert Series, his first performance in the plaza in two years. The four-time Grammy Award winner has confirmed that he will perform “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16”, his latest single that currently stands at #12, ready to add to his record breaking streak of Top 10 hits.
Urban is also providing fans with the opportunity to choose one of his songs. They’re invited to go to http://www.today.com/popculture/fan-pick-vote-song-you-want-keith-urban-sing-today-t35446 to choose from his #1 hits “Long Hot Summer” or “Once In A Lifetime” or “Good Thing”. Voting closes today (August 4th).
Urban is currently on tour performing at fairs and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada and will begin filming for American Idol in August. The official music video for John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16, the first from Urban’s next studio album, is due to be released next month.
For more official Keith Urban news and ticket information go to www.keithurban.net.
Four-time Grammy Award winner Keith Urban debuts his documentary short “The Making Of John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” today at http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/30/keith-urban-documentary-john-cougar-deere. The 7-minute piece is a revealing, inside look into the recording of Urban’s latest and fastest selling single in nearly a decade, and is also available for posting via https://www.youtube.com/embed/xKdx27gMDTY.
A four-minute version is also available at https://www.youtube.com/embed/F4rC20qxTJU.
Narrated by Urban, the documentary delves into the creative journey through which John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16 was conceived. It chronicles the recording of the song, warts and all, from Urban’s initial frustrations of ‘where to even start (the song)’ to the unfamiliar revelation that the song’s foundation would be built around the bass guitar, rather than Urban’s usual six-string. Light-hearted moments also reveal what Urban forgets to do when singing and why his “crowd of four” unknown backing singers stare at their phones while singing.
“We couldn’t recall a song-specific documentary short that really gave a feeling for how a song comes together,” said Urban. “We’re usually filming anyway and the evolution of “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” really did happen in the studio, so we thought why not share some of the fun (and creative angst) that we usually have in the studio with our fans!”
Urban is currently on tour performing at fairs and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada and will begin filming for American Idol in August. The official music video for John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16, the first from Urban’s next studio album, is due to be released next month.
“Hey! This is Alan Jackson, wishing you a happy and safe Fourth of July.”
“Hey guys! I’m Billy Currington, wishing you a Happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey y’all! I’m John, and I’m TJ, and we are Brothers Osbourne, wish you a very Happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! What’s up guys? I’m Canaan Smith, wishing you a safe and happy Fourth of July!”
“Hey y’all, what’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a very, very happy Fourth of July!”
“Happy Birthday, America!”
“This is David Nail, wishing you a happy Fourth of July!”
“Hey! This is Easton Corbin. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey this is Eric Church, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! This is Eric Paslay, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! This is Gary Allan. Happy Fourth of July.”
“Hi, it’s Jon Pardi, wishing you a happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey everybody, Keith Urban here, wanting to wish you all a fantastic and safe summer. Enjoy the sunshine. Hopefully, you’ll get to spend some time with the ones you love, and hopefully, we’ll also get to see you out on the road.”
“Hi! This is Charles, Hillary and Dave of Lady Antebellum, wishing you a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend.”
“Hey! It’s Lauren Alaina. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! We’re Little Big Town. Happy Fourth of July!”
“Hey! This is Luke Bryan, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! This is Mickey Guyton, wishing you a Happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey everybody! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a safe and happy Fourth of July.”
“Hey! This is Scotty McCreery. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”
“Hi! It’s Toby Keith, wishing you a safe Fourth of July.”
Canaan Smith (Father’s Day) OC: …I love him. :35
“My dad, I think is just the greatest man. He’s always provided for us. He was always there. He was always a great dad. He worked his butt off, you know, and showed me what it was like to work hard and provide for a family, and I just hope I can do that one day too. We’ve always had a special bond. He’s been a songwriter and a singer too for a long, long time, and so I got to grow up listening to him do his thing, sitting in the other room while they do band rehearsal. I’d be sitting on the couch in the other room just taking it all in, dreaming one day to be behind that microphone, so he’s definitely been an inspiration. I love him.”
Canaan Smith (Father’s Day) 2 OC: …learned that too. :45
“I learned that music scores chicks. [laughs] My dad had a rehearsal one time at his piano player’s house, and I was sitting on the couch in the living room, and the piano player had two daughters that were around my same age, and they were sitting on either side of me on the couch. I thought I was king of the world, you know, watching this rock and roll band and a girl around each arm, and I was like six-years-old, eight-years-old something like that, old enough to know that was pretty awesome! My dad, he taught me hard work too. It took rehearsals. It took dedication. You can’t just get up on a stage and fly by the seat of your pants. You have to be prepared, and so I learned that too.”
Darius Rucker (Father’s Day) OC: …loving dad. :41
“I think if you asked my kids what kind of Dad I was they would probably say…Danny would say that I was a fun Dad. My little daughter would say that I was a fun dad; she thinks I’m a lot of fun. I think if you caught them at the right moment they would say I was mean [laughs] because when I’m home I’m not afraid to discipline them. I’m all fun until it’s not fun anymore and then daddy’s not the fun guy. I think that they’d say that I was a fun Dad, I’m a loving Dad and I think they would say that. I’m gone so much that when I’m home, I just shower love upon my kids. I say ‘I love you’ probably fifty times a day. We hug, we kiss all the time. I’m always wanting them to know how much I love them. So I’d hope they’d say that I was a loving dad.”
Dierks Bentley (how fatherhood has changed him) OC: …different. :07
“There’s a whole kind of universe that opens up that I didn’t know existed, and I’m not the center of it, which is really cool. It just makes you look at everything totally different.”
Eric Church (Father’s Day) OC: …always admired. :29
“My dad is a, I’m trying to find the right words to describe him. My dad is a great guy, honest guy, very call it like he sees it, which is where I get a lot of that. No BS. I’m gonna tell you how I feel whether you like it or not. I’m that guy, I’m me…My dad’s that way, so I get a lot of that from him. There’s also an honesty and an integrity that my dad carries himself with that I’ve always admired.”
Eric Paslay (Father’s Day) OC: …ceiling fan. :21
“He just taught me that working hard and sticking it out, even when you know things aren’t right, if you stick it out, it’s worth it in the end. He just taught me to work hard, and there’s a lot of things that you don’t need to pay someone to do, and it feels more rewarding when you’re able to put in new light fixtures or paint your own walls or put in a new ceiling fan.”
Keith Urban (Father’s Day) OC: …experience that. :36
“The first thing is probably just having someone call you dad. I’m like, ‘Omigosh! I’m her dad! That’s amazing.’ That’s probably the first thing to me. I don’t know, I mean, the different personalities that our two daughters have, that’s amazing. It’s such a long list I think. I always say…I think for the people that haven’t had kids – which I hadn’t for a long, long time. I didn’t have kids ‘til later on, and being around it is not the same as having them, you know? I realize that it’s not something that can be explained until you actually sort of have it, so I’m glad I got to experience that.”
Kip Moore (Father’s Day-dad’s influence) OC: …of us singin’ ‘em. :29
“He would just play all those classic records – Little River Band, Jackson Brown, Springsteen, Seeger, Willie Nelson, the Red-Headed Stranger, Kristofferson, Sam Cook – like classic music. He’d be singing the songs and telling us why it was such good music. And I looked up to him so much, that’s the music I gravitated towards and that’s what I continue to listen to. Whenever I think about those old fishing trips, that’s what I think about is on the way down there, him singing those songs and all of us singin’ ‘em.”
Lady A (Father’s Day-Dave) OC: …like that. :39
“My dad was a really hard worker growing up and was always great, however hard he worked, he’d always make important time for family, important time to be home for dinner and be there for a lot of special moments for us growing up. For all the money he would make, he would always give a portion of it back to charity or to the church, and so that was always important for me to watch. We had a great relationship growing up. My dad plays guitar; he’s very musical. I learned how to play acoustic guitar with him playing ‘Day Tripper’ by the Beatles and all these old songs we’d play together when he’d show me how to play these James Taylor songs and things like that. So, definitely want to pass along music, of course, to my children, as well, like that.”
Lady A (Father’s Day-Hillary) OC: …my children. :33
“I definitely got my Type-A personality from my dad. He’s the same way, but one thing I’m so appreciative of – especially from a father-daughter relationship – my dad always, always talked to me, even when I didn’t want to talk to him. He would force me to communicate and talk through things, and not always the easy stuff, which is such a rare quality in a man, truthfully. And so, I am very, very thankful for that. I think it helped me find the right husband for me, and I also know that it will help me be that much of a better communicator to my children.”
Lady A (Father’s Day-Charles) OC: …rubbed off. :23
“My father definitely passed down his work ethic to me. I idolized my dad a lot and would always like to be by his side when he did certain projects, and so I learned a lot from him about that, and just always respected him and just the way he could see a project from start to finish with such dedication, and so I’ve taken that into this and into this group, and hopefully, some good has rubbed off.”
Little Big Town (Jimi-Father’s Day) OC: …beautiful. :32
“It’s still such a new experience for us, and man, I’m telling you, people can tell you all day long how great it’s going to be, but it still never touches it. That little man looking back at me, it’s the most unbelievable feeling. And every day, for me who hates mornings [laughs], waking up to a slap in the face; he’s like pounding on me, then he’s like kissing on me and stuff. It’s unbelievable. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
Sam Hunt (Father’s Day) OC: …he’s great. :27
“I’m obviously biased about my parents, but I’ve been around a lot of great men of integrity, but he is by far the best man that I know. He’s just taught me so much about being a man, doing the right thing, knowing the difference between right and wrong. And even though I don’t always follow his lead, I definitely know better because of him, and that means a whole lot to me. I was just really fortunate to have him as a dad, and he’s great.”
Scotty McCreery (Father’s Day) OC: …was to me. :29
“My father has been incredible to me my whole life. I remember going to the baseball field when I was five-years-old and he played ball in college, so he was always trying to teach me the mechanics, but more so than that, he was teaching me the life lessons growing up. Those are the things you learn on the field – becoming a man out there. So, he’s always had my back and he’s always teaching me those values and those morals that are important to a young kid and also a growing young adult. So, love my daddy, love my father, and I just hope that one day I can be half the dad he was to me.”
Father’s Day is Sunday (June 21st), and we have liners with many of your favorite country stars! See and download below.
“Hey everybody! I’m Billy Currington, wishing you a very Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey! What’s up, guys? I’m Canaan Smith. Happy Father’s Day, Pops!”
“Hey! What’s up? This is Darius Rucker wishing you a Happy Father’s Day.”
“Hey! This is Easton Corbin. Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey! This is Eric Church, wishing you a Happy Father’s Day.”
“Hey! This is Eric Paslay. To all you fathers, Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey! This is Gary Allan, and I want to wish all the dads out there a Happy Father’s Day.”
“Jon Pardi here. Happy Father’s Day to all you father’s out there.”
“Hey y’all! This is Josh Turner, and I just want to wish all you father’s out there a Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey! It’s Kacey Musgraves. Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey everyone! It’s Keith Urban, wishing all you Dads out there a Happy Father’s Day.”
“What’s up all you Dads out there? It’s Lady Antebellum, and we just wanted to wish you all a good, Happy Father’s Day. Thanks for being great dads. Hope you get pampered and you don’t have to barbecue. And we hope you get some good ties this year.”
“Hey! It’s Lauren Alaina. Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hi! This is Little Big Town, wishing all you father’s a Happy Father’s Day.”
“Hey! This is Sam Hunt. To all you fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hey! This is Scotty McCreery. Happy Father’s Day!”
“Hi! This is Shania Twain. Happy Father’s Day.”
“Hey everybody! It’s Vince, and I just wanted to wish you a Happy Father’s Day. Wish mine was still around.”
Paul McCartney, Sting, Lady Gaga, Rush, Billy Joel, have all taken to the main stage at the Festival De Quebec, as will The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Doobie Brothers and Iggy Azalea over the next ten days. But the highlight of the Festival for country music fans was the historic main stage performance by Keith Urban who, on Friday night, broke a four-decade old country music drought when he became the first county artist to perform at the historic festival.
“We honestly had no idea of what to expect when Mr. Urban arrived here in Quebec,” said Louis Bellavance, programming director of the festival. “We were hoping that our fans would be ready for country but it was somehow a blind date for lots of them. But his unbelievable performance, professionalism and graciousness, were not only beyond all expectation, they showed us why Country music is so popular. It was a first for the Festival d’été de Québec, but thanks to Keith Urban, we’ll have country music again for the years to come on our main stage!”
“It was a huge honor to have been invited to Quebec to play the historic Le Festival d’ete de Quebec,” said Urban. “It was a phenominal experience – the power, energy and love from the crowd was beyond anything I could’ve imagined happening. I so hope that we get to do it again.”
Before what event organizers estimated as a crowd of 70,000, Urban grabbed a hold of them and didn’t let go as they sang, danced, cheered and even cried along with Urban, whose two-hour set electrified.
For more Keith Urban news and tour information go to www.keithurban.net
Québec!!! AMAZING tonight! Merci, merci beaucoup! We had the BEST time playing up here at the Festival! - KU
Posted by Keith Urban on Friday, July 10, 2015
Little Big Town will return to host CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock for the third time. The special is scheduled to air August 4th at 8pm ET on ABC. “We are honored to host this incredible party for another year,” says LBT’s Jimi Westbrook. “We look forward to this week all year long, and being able to spend all four days with the fans is just incredible. Big thanks to ABC and the CMA for having us back!”
Keith Urban has been tapped as one of the headliners of the PlentiTogether Live concert July 19th at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. The show will also feature performances by Nick Jonas and Pitbull.
Lady Antebellum, who picked up the CMT Award for Group Video of the Year for “Bartender” this week, tweeted that they will team up with electronic dance music producer and DJ Audien on the song called “Something Better.”
Lady Antebellum @ladyantebellum Jun 9
We are so excited to be featured on the upcoming song “Something Better” by our amazingly talented friend @Audien. Stay tuned…coming soon!
NASHVILLE – CMA and the CMA Foundation unveiled its new “Music Education Matters” campaign today during CMA Music Festival and announced that superstar Keith Urban will be the first national ambassador for the program, which provides musical instruments and teaching support to programs serving inner-city youth.
“Music is not only powerful, it’s magical,” said Urban. “It has the ability to bring people together, to inspire, calm, enhance creativity and intelligence, and to improve concentration. There is nothing like seeing the genesis of the relationship between an instrument and a child or young adult. I’m so honored and proud that the CMA Foundation has given us this opportunity to be a part of something that can have such a positive effect on so many young lives.”
Getting instruments into the hands of children is not just something that Urban has championed through the years, but is something he’s supporting with a personal donation. He is contributing 60 Keith Urban guitars complete with amplifiers, strings, and picks to five Music Education Matters partner programs across the country including programs in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, and San Francisco.
“Several of these programs have instruments that were provided by the Foundation, but thanks to Keith’s generosity some of our most ambitious and talented students will have a guitar to take home for practice and improving their skills,” said Ron Samuels, Chairman of the CMA Foundation Board of Directors. “This donation is life changing and central to our message that Music Education Matters.”
“I am extremely grateful for Keith’s generosity and his commitment to advancing music education,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “I have witnessed the difference an instrument makes in the development of a child. Just imagine if someone hadn’t put a guitar in Keith Urban’s hands.”
Young performers from Metro Nashville Public Schools – one of the recipient programs – participated in the announcement at the AT&T U-verse® Fan Fair X in the Music City Center. Students from JFK Middle School and Antioch High School surprised Urban with a rendition of his hit, “Days Go By” and four, high school guitar students from Nashville School of the Arts joined Urban and his band for a performance of Urban’s new single “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.”
“I have witnessed first-hand the effect a musical instrument can make in the life of a student,” said Linda Friend, a Metro Music Specialist at John F. Kennedy Middle School. “Rex Yape, a 2014 graduate of Antioch High School, was first provided with recorders through CMA while just a young performer in the Antioch-based ‘Renaissance Kids.’ During his sophomore year, while auditioning on recorder for membership into the Tri-M Music Honor Society, one of the judges suggested that Rex might make a fine oboe player. On Monday morning of the next week a brand new CMA oboe was presented to Rex. Rex used that oboe to audition for All-State and to play as a member of the Curb Youth Symphony. Rex has just completed his first year at the Curtis Institute of Music, undeniably one of the top music institutions in the world, and is looking forward to a career as a professional musician, something that would not have been possible without the generosity of CMA.”
The guitars will be distributed to five separate in-school and after-school programs including Notes for Notes, which constructs and operates recording studios in Boys and Girls Clubs nationwide. The CMA Foundation has funded studios in Atlanta, Austin, Brooklyn, Detroit, Nashville, and San Francisco, with plans to expand into other markets in 2016.
“Everyday youth in our studios are getting their hands on instruments but thanks to Keith we will be able to gift these guitars to our most dedicated players to take home and shred into their musical dreams,” said Phil Gilley, CEO/ Co-Founder Notes for Notes.
CMA Foundation partner programs that will be receiving guitars include:
Education Through Music: Education Through Music (ETM) partners with inner-city schools to provide all students with music as a core subject, and to create school communities that value the arts. In the 2014/2015 school year, ETM served 20,000 students and 40 teachers in 37 inner-city schools in New York City, and their model reaches another 8,000 children through the work of their licensed affiliate organization in Los Angeles.
Harmony Project: Harmony Project is a tuition free, after-school and weekend music program in Los Angeles that targets 2,000 at-risk students ages 6-18. Combining rigorous music instruction and enrichment activities, mentoring, family support services, and college scholarships, the program guides vulnerable youth through life’s challenges while building critical life skills that will serve them into adulthood.
Little Kids Rock (LKR): Little Kids Rock is a national nonprofit that provides an innovative music education program called Modern Band to more than 195,000 students in 29 cities. LKR leverages the shared cultural capital of students (and their teachers) by connecting learning to the music styles that kids already know and love including rock, pop, hip hop, and Country. LKR provides instruments, curriculum, teacher training, and ongoing support.
Metro Nashville Public Schools: Since 2006, CMA and the CMA Foundation have donated more than $9 million to support an unprecedented effort to strengthen and improve music education in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Through this unique partnership with Metro Schools and the Nashville Public Education Foundation, CMA has provided thousands of instruments, enabling the city to accelerate access to quality music education for all students.
Notes for Notes: Notes for Notes funds the construction of music studios in Boys and Girls Clubs and other facilities across the U.S. The CMA Foundation made an initial donation to the Nashville Notes for Notes chapter and committed additional funds to expand the program in several markets including Atlanta, Austin, Brooklyn, Detroit, and San Francisco.
The CMA Foundation receives the bulk of the funding to support these and other programs from CMA Music Festival. To date, CMA and the CMA Foundation have donated more than $11 million to this worthy cause on behalf of the artists who perform at CMA Music Festival for free.
The Foundation has made Music Education Matters its core initiative. Statistics show it is making a difference. Studies have proven that people who play instruments from childhood have above average general reasoning skills and verbal intelligence. Other studies indicated that learning music increases fine motor skills, enhanced hearing ability, and memory.
This means the skills acquired learning music give the child the foundation to succeed in other disciplines. For instance, the enhanced reasoning skills and verbal intelligence are the skills needed to excel in the language arts. The act of reading music is cognitively very similar to the act of reading words, so children who learn to read music at a young age generally read at a higher grade level than their peers.
Keith Urban’s seventh studio album FUSE, his fourth No. 1 album, marked the first time that a male Country artist has debuted atop the all-genre charts in the United States, Canada, and Australia. FUSE’s first single, “Little Bit of Everything” took the top spot on the Country Singles Chart, as did “We Were Us,” featuring Miranda Lambert, which gave Urban a streak of five consecutive No. 1 songs (dating back to 2011’s “Without You”). In fact, with the release of FUSE’s fourth and fifth No. 1 singles, “Somewhere In My Car” and “Raise ‘Em Up,” Urban extended his lead as the artist with the most consecutive Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart, a streak which started in August of 2000. He was the first Country artist to be named an American Idol judge, a role he willreprise for the show’s 15th and final season.
Urban has long supported numerous charities. Amongst other things, he is an advisory board member at the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and a longtime supporter of The Grammy Foundation. In 2013, he introduced his new URBAN™ Guitar Collection via HSN, proceeds of which went to benefit both the Grammy Foundation and Mr. Holland’s Opus Fund. The offering resulted in the largest guitar debut ever for the entertainment/lifestyle retailer, selling out in a matter of hours. In 2014 his second offering, for his URBAN™ Guitar Collection via HSN, broke that record. His annual “All For The Hall” benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum© has raised nearly $2.5 million.
CMA created the nonprofit (501C3) CMA Foundation in 2011. Guided by the generosity of the Country Music community, the CMA Foundation focuses on improving and sustaining music education programs everywhere while supporting worthwhile causes important to the Country Music Association.
**Suggested Tweet**: The #CMAfoundation announces @KeithUrban as #MusicEducationMatters ambassador after performing w/ Nashville students at #CMAfest! {Link URL}
Four-time Grammy Award winner Keith Urban, will release his brand new single “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” tomorrow (Tuesday). Nearly two years removed from the release of his #1 album FUSE, which produced four #1 singles, Urban’s latest will see the digital delivery of the song to radio tomorrow at 6:00AMET/5:00AMCT, as well as the network television debut of “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16”, live on the CMT Awards.
“It’s a great feeling to be back in the studio shaping a new album,” said Urban. “‘John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16’ was sent to me a few months ago by one of the songwriters and I loved it immediately – loved it so much that right before I walked out on stage at the Ryman (Auditorium) for CRS a few months back, I thought I’d play the song solo acoustic to see what the audience thought. Flash forward and there’s no doubt that their response that day helped make it the first single from what will be my next album.”
Written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman and Josh Osborne and co-produced by Dann Huff and Urban, the up-tempo track’s title “resonated deeply” with Urban. “It’s the poetic use of the three John’s and what each represents to me.”
Urban is set to debut “John Cougar. John Deere. John 3:16” live on stage of the Bridgestone Arena during Wednesday night’s CMT Music Awards at 8:00ET/7:00CT on CMT.
“John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” will become available for purchase and streaming at midnight (11:00PM CT) also on June 9th.
For more Keith Urban Summer official tour information go to www.keithurban.net.