The country singer Keith Urban, 52, is hosting an “unprecedented” American Country Music Awards show this year.
For his first time hosting, it was a great challenge to figure it all out. Due to COVID, the show will be live at the Grand Ole Opry, and artists will be at the Bluebird Café and the Ryman Auditorium.
Urban has had a long road to sobriety. He has always been open about his battle with addiction and even gave advice to Demi Lovato in her struggle with the same demons.
Urban has said he “didn’t seem to be able to stop” drinking and taking prescription drugs. “I’d go to sleep, wake up a couple of hours later, then go at it again, drinking to take the edge off”.
Sadly, he remembers thinking “I’m not going to make it until tomorrow”. Then shortly after he would “take an Ambien and at some point, I’ll pass.”
In 2007, Urban checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs after his wife of four months, Nicole Kidman, staged an intervention.
“Nicole listened to her heart and did what she felt she had to do”, Urban has stated. He has also said that seeing that kind of love from her “just makes me want to be a better man”.
Looking forward to the ACMs, Urban says his family will be cheering him on from Australia where his wife is shooting a movie. “They’ll be ahead, in the future, cheering me on”!
