How Keith Urban Really Feels About Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift and Keith Urban's friendship began in the early days of her career. In 2009, Swift joined the likes of Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley in opening for Urban's Escape The World Together tour. During one show, the "Blank Space" hitmaker and her bandmates pranked Urban using his song "I Want To Kiss A Girl." Everyone donned a different costume representing the word "kiss," with Swift choosing to dress up as a member of the rock band KISS. Although the singer-songwriter started out as one of Urban's opening acts, in just four short years, her popularity grew to the point where Swift was performing alongside him and fellow country star Tim McGraw at the 2013 ACM Awards. 

In fact, around two years after that, Urban was the guest act at her sold-out show at Rogers Center, during the world-conquering pop star's epic 1989 tour. As Swift ventured into new eras, the "Somebody Like You" hitmaker remained incredibly supportive of his former opener. In fact, when the Grammy winner dropped her tenth album, "Midnights," in 2022, Urban hailed it as one of her greatest works in a chat with Billboard.

The Australian-American artist similarly opined on Swift's rise to fame in a 2024 interview with The Times, noting, "It's been remarkable watching Taylor grow in public because it's pretty brutal. It feels like now people have long forgotten all of the s*** she had to go through." Urban also admired her resilience in dealing with the constant criticism, remarking, "Just trial by fire over and over — and always getting stronger for it."

As Taylor Swift started releasing her own versions of past albums, the singer-songwriter honored her humble beginnings by including Keith Urban on "That's When" off "Fearless (Taylor's Version)." Speaking on "The Project" in 2022, the country icon revealed that he was having a low key day Christmas shopping at a mall in Sydney, in December 2020, before sitting down for a meal at the food court. That's when Urban got a text from Swift, which read: "Hey, I've got a couple of songs that I'm thinking of doing. I'd love you to sing on them. Do you want to hear them?" Urban wasted no time in agreeing, so she swiftly sent him the tracks, and he listened to them right there in the mall.

During a prior appearance on "The Ellen Show" in 2021, the "We Were Us" hitmaker acknowledged that it was "an usual place to be hearing unreleased Taylor Swift music, but I loved the songs." When host Ellen DeGeneres inquired about his and Nicole Kidman's kids' reaction to the feature, Urban confirmed that they were over the moon upon learning that the "Shake It Off" songstress had reached out to him. 

However, Kidman and Urban left their Swiftie daughters at home when they attended the Eras Tour together in May 2023. The country singer later posted a TikTok of them jamming out to "Style." Later, in an interview with People, the Aussie star admitted that the show had surpassed all his expectations, gushing, "We had the best time. [...] She's absolutely at the top of her game. This tour is just the best of the best."