Keith Urban Remembers Early-Career 'Playgirl' Photoshoot: 'Luckily, I Play Guitar and Not Harmonica' (original) (raw)

Keith Urban embraced his heartthrob status early on, even posing for Playgirl at the start of his career.

In a live taping of Literally! With Rob Lowe on SiriusXM, the country star and host Rob Lowe had a laugh about the risqué photoshoot.

"I didn't know there was such a thing!" Urban, 56, said about the existence of the NSFW magazine, to which the Unstable star, 60, responded with disbelief: "Hang on, Mr. Urban. We know you're from Australia."

Keith Urban on 'Literally! With Rob Lowe' in September 2024.

Emma McIntyre/Getty

The "Somebody Like You" singer clarified that he understood the purpose of Playboy, and Lowe cheekily responded with, "it's equal titillation."

Urban also shared the simple backstory of the almost-forgotten shoot.

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"It was a guy at my record company who was like, 'Hey, you know, we can do this article in Playgirl, and they'll do a big, long, nice piece on the record,' and I was like, 'Great,' and then we'll go to a photoshoot too. I was like, 'Oh, okay,'" he recalled.

Rather than dwelling on being blindsided by the photoshoot portion, Urban took a different outlook on the situation, telling Lowe, "Luckily, I play guitar and not harmonica.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the "Blue Ain't Your Color" musician dished on writing love songs and revealed that not everything is about his A-List wife Nicole Kidman.

"People think everything I write is about her and of course, you know, a lot of things are and a lot of things aren't," Urban said.

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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban in November 2023.

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The Australian country star released his self-titled debut in 1991 and moved across the world to Nashville a year later after being inspired by his father's country records. He released his second self-titled album — first in America — in 1999. Since then, Urban has won multiple Grammy Awards, countless ACAs and even earned a Golden Globe nomination for his original song "For You" featured in Act of Valor.

Urban met Kidman in 2005 and tied the knot in 2006. The couple shares two children, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret. The Big Little Lies actress, 57, shares two children — Bella and Connor — with ex-husband Tom Cruise.