Keith Urban recalled what he bought with his first royalty check during a recent interview with Audacy.
The “Wild Hearts” singer spoke with Audacy’s Katie Neal of Katie & Company on her show Superstar Power Hour earlier this month, sharing that he used his first royalty check to buy a new car.
Urban received his first royalty check after scoring his first No. 1 in the U.S. with his song, “But For The Grace of God” back in 2001. Following this career milestone, Urban took the $20,000 royalty check to go purchase a Chevy Impala SS.
“I love cars, and I had a ’92 Chevy Caprice at the time, but I really wanted an Impala SS, mid-‘90s-94, somewhere around there would be nice,” Urban recalled during his conversation with Neal. “I found one for sale online at a car yard in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
“[I] got my first royalty check for ‘Grace of God’ and it was $20,000 and the car was $23,000. I fly to North Carolina to get this car, hoping I can get this guy to come down to 20 grand because I don’t have 23,” he explained. “And, um, I get there and I jump in the car, and there I am driving in the car with this guy and it’s perfect, I can’t fault the car, it’s just perfection. And the whole time I’m thinking, ‘how do I get this guy to come down on the price?,’” he added.
Urban then continued to say how he and the car salesman finally came to an agreement about the price of the Impala.
“I really don’t have $23,000. I only have $20,000,” Urban said. “And he goes, ‘what sort of money do you make for doing, like you know, an appearance?,’ and my first thought was, ‘none of your business,’ right? Because I’m thinking he’s thinking I’m good for it. And then I said, ‘what do you mean?’”
Urban explained that the salesman asked him what signing some autographs at the car yard would cost him, to which Urban offered a price of $3,000.
Urban ultimately returned to the car yard a few years later in 2005 while touring and signed autographs “for hours and hours and hours,” calling the line of fans who’d gathered to see him “insane.”
“Of course I’d blow my first big check on a car,” Urban told Neal. “Such a single guy thing to do.”
During the interview, Urban shared that he wrote “But For The Grace of God” with the Go-Go’s but that the writing session didn’t get off to a great start. Just as they were about to quit, however, “But For The Grace of God” was born and Urban wound up taking the song back to his publishers to try to pitch it to another artist. After the song went unrecorded for a couple years, Urban’s team persuaded him to cut the track, and in doing so, snagged him his first No. 1.
In addition to reflecting on “But For The Grace of God,” Urban also revealed that he’s working on another album.
Urban recently wrapped up the U.K. leg of his Speed Of Now Tour and will embark on the U.S. leg of the tour on Jun. 17.
