Keith Urban Reveals The Tragic Truth Behind His Struggle With Drugs And Alcohol

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There’s a lot more the Keith Urban than meets the eye.

Today, you may know him as a country superstar, guitar player extraordinaire, American Idol judge, heartthrob, and one-half of the cutest celebrity couple you’ve ever seen.

Before he was all that, and even during, there was a lot to him that the public did not know about.

Urban moved to Nashville in 1992 and was not finding immediate success like he had hoped. His roommate at the time offered him cocaine, and he accepted the offer. That one-time cocaine use turned into an addiction.

His use of alcohol and drugs was fueled by his insecurities as an artist.

“When I was onstage, I felt good, but if I was not onstage, I was very, very insecure,” he told Rolling Stone. “I felt like I didn’t have much of anything to offer. I was just an alien. And then I was on the phone with this girl I was dating. She’s trying to break up with me. I’m saying, ‘What the hell? What’s going on? What’s happened?’ And eventually she said, ‘For f–k’s sake, can’t you see that the novelty of you has worn off?’ You might say, ‘Big deal.’ But I was feeling insecure, and the fact that me and my accent would be a novelty to somebody cut me to the core. Oh, my God. Really bad. It devastated me.”

He began doing drugs to stay awake, to go to sleep and everything in between. At some points, he didn’t even know if he would wake up the next day. 

He was also addicted to ecstasy and alcohol, and dabbled with Ambien. In 2006, he married actress Nicole Kidman and that same year, she staged an intervention and sent him to rehab for the third time in eight years. 

Following his 2006 rehab stint, he has since become a changed man, but he regrets his timing.

“I caused the implosion of my fresh marriage. It survived, but it’s a miracle it did,” he says. “I was spiritually awoken with her. I use the expression ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction,” he said.

Ten years later, Kidman and Urban are stronger than ever and Urban is as confident as ever with his new album Ripcord out and a brand new world tour.

He is also set to perform in his home country, Australia, for the first time since he was 17-years-old.

“I’m so psyched about finally getting to play a real show in the country of my birth. The last time I played music there, I was in a duo playing every weekend at a pub called the DB Onerahi in Whangarei … and I was 17. This is gonna be an amazing feeling!”

Watch Nicole and Keith’s incredibly cute duet to his new song “The Fighter” below!