Keith Urban Talks About His Dad + More Country Music News 9 23

Keith Urban's father wasn't one to express his emotions. In his childhood home, the country superstar admits, conversations about feelings were not often had.

"I was raised in a house with a dad that was always like, 'Shhh. Don't rock the boat. Don't talk about anything; say [it] in your music,'" Urban shares in a conversation about his new album, The Speed of Now Part 1. "And there's a lot of truth in that ... but there are times when we should be speaking up and saying something ..."

"We didn't talk about anything," Urban continues, "... and there was so many times we should have said something."

"Say Something," one of 15 tracks on Urban's latest effort, finds Urban at that crossroads. The lyrics reflect on how his father's mindset affected him ("When I get close, I close up / Intimacy’s so hard for me, and I get stuck") and profess — through song, just as his dad would have suggested — "I don’t wanna be like my father was / Scared to rock the boat, never speaking up / I wanna live my truths wide open."

The song "God's Country" just won Single of the Year at the 2020 ACM Awards.

Blake Shelton has a new television venture in the works. The singer and coach on The Voice is working with folks from Hollywood and Nashville on a scripted drama based on his song "God's Country."

The show — called In God's Country — has a script commitment at NBC and would focus on a farm family in the midwest. Per Deadline, when the family's patriarch dies, the adult children discover he was keeping a secret from them.

Dan + Shay, Luke Combs and Blake Shelton are among the country artists nominated at the all-genre categories at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. Nominees were revealed on Tuesday (Sept. 22).

Dan + Shay are nominated for Top Country Artist, Top Country Duo/Group and Top Country Song in addition to their all-genre Top Duo/Group nomination. Combs, meanwhile, is in the Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Country Album categories as well as the all-genre Billboard Chart Achievement Awards category, and Shelton has a Top Country Song nod to go with his all-genre Top Selling Song nomination.

Kelly Clarkson will host the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. The show is set for Oct. 14 at 8PM ET, and will air live from Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre on NBC.

Q106.5 Country Music News Weekday Mornings at 8:20