Keith Urban Does Not Want the Taylor Swift Treatment
Amid his ongoing divorce from Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban has made a plea to the tabloids and his fans. Last Friday, Urban hit the last stop of his High and Alive World Tour at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. But just before he sang his 2002 hit “You’ll Think of Me,” the 57-year-old addressed the crowd. “I’ve been covering like this for a long time,” he said, according to a TikTok video captured by a fan. “Stop reading shit into it.” Urban went on to change the song’s lyrics from the original “But you’ll think of me” to a shouted, “But I betcha think about me!” He also changed the line “Take your space and take your reasons” to “all your bullshit reasons.”
Urban’s declaration seems to have been spurred by a few recent instances in which he took lyrical liberties during performances. Last month, before the divorce became public knowledge, Urban’s utility player Maggie Baugh shared a video to Instagram in which she and the country star sang his 2016 duet “The Fighter,” a song that was inspired by Kidman. Instead of singing the original line, “When they’re tryna get to you, baby, I’ll be the fighter,” he changed the lyrics to address Baugh: “When they’re tryna get to you, Maggie, I’ll be your guitar player.” Baugh captioned the post, “Did he just say that????,” and added two emojis on top of the video: “???? ????.”
Predictably, after TMZ first reported news of Urban and Kidman’s separation a few days later, tabloids began to speculate that the lyric switch-up was an Easter egg winking at the impending divorce. The Daily Mail claimed that Urban “shocked fans” with the change, adding that “insiders in Nicole’s camp believe Keith has already moved on with a ‘younger woman in the music industry.’” Entertainment Tonight also picked up the news, as fans flooded the post with comments like, “OK, dumping Nicole is looking more suspect” and “’It is so trashy to do this to a song inspired by his wife … It’s the ultimate ick.”
Prior to Kidman’s divorce filing, the couple were married for 19 years and share two daughters, 17-year-old Sunday Rose and 14-year-old Faith. TMZ initially reported last month that the couple has been living apart since “the beginning of the summer,” and that Kidman “did not want the separation,” calling the split “one-sided.” In the meantime, I am wishing Kidman a very eventful fall of romance, hopefully in the vein of her film Babygirl.
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