Better late than never.
Keith Urban has been around Nashville for a while now. He signed his first record deal with EMI in his home country of Australia before moving to the United States in 1992, and scored his first #1 single in 2000 with “But For The Grace Of God” from his self-titled album.
Between the time he moved to Nashville and the time he found commercial success, Keith managed to build up quite the resume. He briefly served as frontman for a band called The Ranch, which had two charting singles, and played guitar for several major country artists, appearing on albums for names like Garth Brooks and Charlie Daniels.
But one of Keith’s first gigs after moving to Nashville was starring in a music video for another country music legend.
By 1993, Alan Jackson was one of the biggest names in country music, riding high off the success of songs like “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” and of course, “Chattahoochee.” So there’s no doubt Keith was thrilled when he was asked to star in Jackson’s upcoming music video for his single “Mercury Blues,” from his third studio album A Lot About Livin’ (And A Little ‘Bout Love).
As Keith recalled:
“They needed a guy, a long-haired guitar player, to come in and be in this video… I signed with this publishing company, and the guy who ran the company was Alan’s manager, so they just went, ‘Oh, we got the guy for you.'”
While he’s a household name now, Keith admits he was “nobody” at the time and was excited at the opportunity to connect with one of the modern superstars in country music:
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to be on the set with Alan Jackson, this is amazing, what a great career boost for me,’ you know? I can’t wait to meet Alan because he’s, you know, famously quiet, for want of a better way to put it.”
And when he got the details of the video shoot, he assumed he would get some up close and personal time with AJ:
“We had a scene where I had a very tiny stage… and it was going to be basically me playing the solo, kind of silhouette, with a bit of lightning and stuff, and Alan right there singing the song.
I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s going to be great. Just him and me. Fantastic.'”
But that’s not exactly how it went on the set:
“So they shot my stuff a few times and then they said, ‘Alright, we’re going to bring out Alan.’ So here he comes, Alan walks out, stands right there, and he sorta looks at me, and looked back at the camera and they go, ‘And action!’
I went, ‘Well ok.’ Played the song a few more times. He never said anything to me. Nothing. I kept waiting to introduce myself. Nothing. Just a look to me and then just, ok back to the camera again.
And then he walked away and that was the end of it.”
Of course that wasn’t REALLY the end of it. Keith and Alan would cross paths again a few years later, and he says that the two are good friends now – and that Alan even apologized for that music video:
“He’s like, ‘Man, I’m so sorry, I hated that video.'”
As it turns out, Alan hadn’t wanted to do that music video because the LA producers wanted to change up his image and make a “slick” music video that he wasn’t really a fan of. And apparently, when he got to set he just did his job and that was about it.
Luckily it all turned out alright for both Alan and Keith – although Alan may have been on to something with his thoughts on the music video, because nobody really remembers “Mercury Blues” as one of his hits or his iconic music videos like “Chattahoochee.”
Well, nobody except Keith Urban.
