The Heartbreak Behind Keith Urban’s Biggest Hit: She Left Before the World Heard It

Keith Urban often writes about relationships and love — that’s been the case since he started writing and recording music decades ago.

The country superstar was a recent guest on the Q With Tom Power podcast, and he dove into the backstory of his 2002 No. 1 hit “Somebody Like You.” He says that his girlfriend at the time was his inspiration for the love song, but the message he was trying to convey fell flat with her.

“I was in a bad way personally, you know, struggling a lot,” Urban recalls now, 20-plus years later. “I was in a relationship that was not … I was not in a good way.”

He was writing the song from the perspective of the person he wanted to be one day.

“I thought at the time that my girlfriend seems to really love me. I wish I could love myself the way she seems to. So, the song was actually I wanna love someone like you, like you do. I wanna love me like you do.”

“I remember writing it and playing a demo for my girlfriend, not realizing what I’m doing playing this song for her,” Urban says.

“She hears it as a love song. And it finished and she just goes, ‘You’re a f–king hypocrite!’ Then walked out of the room.”

Keith Urban on healing the chain of generational pain

“On the surface it just seemed like this beautiful love song, and she’s like, ‘You don’t wanna love anyone, you’re just an a–hole,’” he says, relaying her interpretation of the song, which held the top chart position for six weeks in 2002.

He adds, “She wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t the guy I was, it was the guy I wished I could be.”

It ended up being a positive thing, because this unnamed girlfriend dumping him would allow him to meet Nicole Kidman in 2005. They were married the next year and are living happily ever after.

Cute Photos of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman That Capture Their Love

Since their chance meeting in 2005, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have been one of the cutest couples in the spotlight. The pair were quick to get married and have kept the fire alive in their marriage for nearly 20 years. Urban and Kidman also share two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

What makes their relationship so special? Their undying support of one another. Despite busy jobs in high-profile industries, the two make time for one another. Which usually results in a cute photo or two.

Here Are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Keith Urban

Keith Urban has been at the top of his game for many years now, and his fans are familiar with his inspiring story. But even his biggest fans won’t know all of these facts about the country superstar.

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes

1. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman sort of saved each other.

Urban has often talked about how his love with Nicole Kidman might have saved his life. Soon after getting married, he entered rehab and emerged a better — and happier — man. Kidman’s returned the compliment, saying that she didn’t think she’d ever find true love again after her divorce from Tom Cruise. The actress says she was in a lonely place prior to meeting Urban at G’Day L.A. in January of 2005; however, after a few dates, she found herself willing to open her heart to him.

“I never, ever take Keith or our love for granted,” Kidman tells Yahoo!, “and I always keep in my mind that my dream is to grow very old with him.”

2. He’s an old farm boy.

While Urban’s father ran a convenience store, the would-be singer got his hands dirty tending to animals on the farm. According to People, he learned ukulele and how to milk cows — though likely not at the same time; he also collected the eggs from chickens and cleaned out the pigsty. Urban may be one of country music’s prettiest faces now, but he has never been afraid to get muddy.

3. He never graduated high school.

At the age of 15, Urban dropped out of high school to pursue music full time, and while he likely wouldn’t recommend that to his daughters, it did work out for him eventually. Urban was a guitar prodigy in his home country, and by the time he was a teenager, he’d made a name for himself, but education — and specifically music education — is something he actively promotes. He was an initial supporter of Music Makes Us, a program that works to raise funds to make music a larger part of the curriculum in public schools by providing instruments and other resources.

4. He often finds inspiration in the shower.

According to a 2005 feature in Country Weekly, Urban enjoys writing songs in the shower — at least, comes up with ideas while getting sudsy. Maybe he write lyrics into the steam on the shower doors?

Another fun Urban songwriting fact: The singer always writes in pen, never pencil, and never on a computer. “I can’t type fast enough,” he says.

5. His secret songwriting weapon? Fried pimento cheese sandwiches.

Monty Powell is a frequent co-writer of Urban’s, and is a man who knows the singer’s habits better than anyone else (except maybe Nicole Kidman). Powell tells People that Urban is great in the morning, but by mid-afternoon, his blood sugar begins to drop, and he starts to doubt everything they’ve done that day … and that’s when it’s time for a snack break.

“We’ll hop into his old pickup truck, drive into Leipers Fork for fried pimento cheese sandwiches,” he says. “There’s a hit song in every fried pimento cheese sandwich!”

6. He was once Brooks & Dunn’s road guitarist.

Once he arrived in America, Urban says, he wasn’t legally allowed to work any non-music jobs. Fortunately, he was able to score steady work as a road guitarist for both Brooks & Dunn and the Dixie Chicks, as well as Alan Jackson. In fact, you can find him in the music video for Jackson’s 1993 hit “Mercury Blues.” Urban’s first solo hit wouldn’t come until 1999 — seven years after he moved to Music City.

7. He was in a band before he was famous.

Urban shot to fame with the release of his self-titled debut album in 1999. However, many fans don’t know that he was in a country group called the Ranch prior to that. They released one album in 1997 and charted two singles, “Walkin’ the Country” and “Just Some Love,” before going their separate ways.

8. He has the best nickname ever.

Urban is the younger of two brothers, so his nickname growing up was Suburban — get it? Sub-Urban? It’s pretty funny, but probably not a name that the country star lets older brother Shane call him these days. With the career the singer has put together, he’s not “sub” to anything!

9. Nicole Kidman wasn’t his first famous lover.

Prior to falling in love with his now-wife, Urban dated supermodel Niki Taylor. Their relationship was one of the better-kept secrets in country music, as they somehow avoided gossip pages. After they split, she kept the house and went on to marry NASCAR driver Burney Lamar, while he found love with actress Kidman.

10. At home, he plays “bad cop.”

During his 2011 tour, Urban nixed the normal meet and greet in favor of a talk show-format discussion with a local radio DJ or member of his team. One of the questions asked was: Who is the disciplinarian, Urban or wife Nicole Kidman? The singer admitted that he’s the one who often has to be “bad cop.” The lesson for fans is, if you see them together and want a picture, ask her!