If you ever watched a video of Keith Urban singing Elvis Presley's hit, "Burning Love," you would never think he was a shy kid at one time. Quite the opposite. He is, excuse the creaky pun, on fire as he sings and plays the guitar like a master of both. Urban commands the stage. People in the audience are going nuts. Elvis himself would have been very proud and admiring. But the singer says that he was really bashful way back in the day, especially onstage. Then some wise advice from an experienced, compassionate performer opened Urban's eyes and dramatically changed his life.
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Urban Learned How to Banish His Reticence
Per Country Now, he likened his instrument to a security blanket because he felt so uneasy in front of a crowd. "It was like a little shield, like Linus with his security blanket, so it was quite comforting to have a guitar," he observed.
Years ago, Urban was a member of a band in Australia. That was when its frontman, an American, gave him some great advice. It was so simple but it realigned his entire outlook on being a confident performer.
Urban said, "And one night he said to me, he goes, 'Hey, when you play a solo, why don't you go to the front of the stage, you know, and just play like that and lean into the audience and really play?' And i'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I couldn't do that.' He goes, 'Why not?' I go, 'Because they'll think I'm like stuck up, like I'm hot, like I'm full of myself.' He goes, 'Well, are you?' I said, 'No.'"
The Advice Made Perfect Sense
Urban realized the definite wisdom of what he was told. He applied it and the result was utterly transformative. "And it was just like BOOM, this whole lightbulb went off. It sounds so obvious, but it was literally like if you are generally a down-to-earth, grounded, good, tongue-in-cheek type person, you can do anything and the audience will love it 'cause they know you're not an arrogant, cocky person at all."
