Keith Urban wanted to spend lockdown eating chips in his "comfy pants".
Keith Urban speaks to Absolute Radio Country
The 53-year-old singer - who has daughters Sunday, 12 and Faith, 10, with wife Nicole Kidman – initially felt a bit "frozen" and thought he could just take a break from work for a while until the coronavirus pandemic "blew over" but quickly realised it was going to be a "big thing" and he needed to "rethink" all his plans.
Speaking to Baylen Leonard as the first guest on Absolute Radio Country - which was previously known as Country Hits Radio - he said: "At the beginning of the whole lockdown I was a bit frozen honestly...
"I was working on my album ‘The Speed of Now’ and it’s like you know when the power goes off, and you’re like how long is this going to be like this?
"My plan was I was just going to put my comfy pants on and sit on the couch and eat chips until the whole thing blew over, that was my plan.
"Suddenly I went, 'This is a big thing and it’s going to take a while'. I had to figure out how to get on track again, just pivot and rethink everything and become adaptable to this new environment."
Keith was determined the pandemic wouldn't feature heavily in his new music.
Discussing his new track 'Out the Cage’ ft. Breland and Nile Rodgers, he said: “It was predicated on my love of those 90s Fatboy Slim records, and The Prodigy and some of that intense rhythmic energy.
"I wanted to try and write something that was built on that rhythmic bed. I brought the idea to a friend of mine, Breland who ended up singing on the song as well. He’s great, we’re working on another song right now, one of his songs I’m guesting on…
“I said to him this can’t just be about lockdown, I don’t just wanna hear about that. I don’t wanna hear about that next year that’s for sure. But I do want a song to help me out of whatever I’m stuck in. Whether that’s a c*** job or a relationship that’s going nowhere, or my own negativity. Just anything and any one situation that I wanted to break out of.”
Listen to Absolute Radio Country on DAB digital radio, your smart speaker, the Absolute Radio app or at absoluteradio.co.uk
Tagged in Keith Urban Nicole Kidman