Keith Urban has opened up about the ‘miserable’ reality of life on the road as a country music star amid his high-profile divorce from Nicole Kidman.
Urban, 57, shared his honest feelings about the challenges he faces while on tour in the first episode of his new CBS and Paramount competition series, The Road.
In the debut episode seen by the Daily Mail – which premieres October 19 at 9PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount Plus – Urban revealed the eye-opening dedication one needs to be able to spend long periods of time away from loved ones.
‘Where do we start?’ He said during the episode, laying bare his thoughts on tour life. ‘It’s a calling, and you’re going to do it or you’re not going to make it.
‘When you wake up on a tour bus at 3.30 in the morning and you’re sick as a dog, you’re in the middle of nowhere and you’ve got to play your fifth show later that night, and you haven’t slept, and you miss your friends, and you’re missing your family, and you’re completely lonely and miserable and sick – and you say to yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?’
‘The only answer can be: Because this is what I’m born to do.’
Turning his attention to the competition series, he said, ‘We’re going to find out who’s made for that stuff.’
The Road follows 12 talented emerging musicians as they compete as opening acts for Ubran, a Grammy Award winner, at music venues across America.
Keith Urban laid bare the brutal challenges musicians face going on the tour in his new competition series The Road
The musician recently split from his wife of 19 years Nicole Kidman (pictured in May 2025)
Gretchen Wilson acts as the tour manager for the series and Urban is joined throughout by executive producers Blake Shelton and Taylor Sheridan.
Country music stars Jordan Davis, Karen Fairchild, Dustin Lynch and Brothers Osborne also make appearances to guide the 12 musicians.
‘With exclusive access to behind-the-scenes workings of the music industry, viewers will see what happens when some of the best emerging musicians pile into a tour bus and tackle a grueling schedule in pursuit of their dreams,’ the official synopsis reads.
Urban’s comments come just weeks after Kidman filed for divorce on September 30 after 19 years of marriage.
The former couple had been kept apart of late amid their hectic filming and touring schedules. An insider previously told the Daily Mail that Kidman was left ‘blindsided’ by the split.
They share daughters Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14.
The pair wed back in 2006 – five years after her split from actor Tom Cruise. Kidman and Urban had a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony at the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel in her hometown of Sydney, Australia.
Urban stars alongside executive producer Taylor Sheridan in his new Paramount series
The Road follows 12 talented emerging musicians as they compete as opening acts for Urban
In 2022, Urban insisted that he and his wife are ‘as normal as you get’ on an episode of Jessica Rowe’s podcast series The Big Talk Show.
Rumors of a romance between Urban and his guitarist Maggie Baugh, 26, have been swirling as her on stage rapport with the artist raised eyebrows – she sung about trying to ‘fight’ feelings earlier this week.
On Thursday, Baugh shared a sneak peek into her new song, The Devil Win, which included lyrics that referenced an internal struggle and self-doubt.
In the track, which she shared on social media, she sang: ‘I don’t know what the hell I believe in / I don’t know how to heal my soul / Or how to fight this feeling and it’s a damn good place to go.
‘No matter how close I get to the burning edge / Tempting as it is, I won’t let the Devil win.’
