NBC Keith Urban is leaving his chair on "The Voice" Australia.
Keith Urban has been a coach on the Australian version of “The Voice” on and off since 2011. The star will not be a coach on the upcoming season of the show.
Urban, 54, spoke with Australia’s Sunday Telegraph, Urban shared that he would be stepping away from the show for 2022 but that he’d be happy to return in the future if timing lines up.
“I actually don’t think of it as the end of a chapter at all because I love doing the show,” Urban told the outlet. “I feel very close to everybody on the set and hopefully the door can stay open because I would jump back in a heartbeat.”
The singer is set to begin his “The Speed of Now” Tour, which was postponed in December 2020 but will finally be kicking off.
Urban Is Putting Family First
Urban told The Daily Telegraph that he was hoping to spend time with his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, and their children, for the holidays in 2022.
“My mom just turned 80 and Nic’s mom, who knows how many Christmases we get with anybody but particularly with our moms, I really cherish that time to spend Christmas with them and our family in [Australia],” Urban shared with the outlet.
He added, “Having the kids in there is great but the extended family as well because we don’t have any family in Nashville, so it is incredible to have all of the cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody, it is just amazing.”
Urban begins his tour in Australia on December 1, and he told the outlet that he has a busy 2023 planned so he will not be returning to “The Voice” alongside “The Voice” Australia coaches Rita Ora, Guy Sebastian, and Jessica Mauboy.
Urban has never been the winner of “The Voice.”
Keith Urban Shared a Tribute to Loretta Lynn
Urban shared a touching tribute to the late country singer Loretta Lynn.
“There’s unique artists, and I mean truly unique artists, and then there’s the very rare ‘one of one’ unclonable originals,” he wrote. “That was THE Miss Loretta Lynn. Bold, fearless, unfiltered, hilarious, smart as a whip, trailblazing (all with a glint in her eye), and gold in her heart.”
He added a story about being Lynn’s date for the 2005 CMT Awards.
“From that night all the way through her 87th birthday bash in 2019 where Miss Loretta asked me to jump out of a cake for her – which I gladly did – she’s been a true believer,” Urban wrote.
He said he was “profoundly grateful” for the time he spent with Lynn.
“Blessings to you and your eternal light Miss Loretta and to all of you family and friends,” he wrote.
Lynn died on October 4, 2022 at age 90, her family announced in a statement released to the New York Times.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the statement read, adding that the family asked for privacy and a memorial would be announced later.