Keith Urban: Out of Rehab and Ready to Tour

Keith Urban, a very successful as well as popular country music singer, completed his three-month stay at the Betty Ford Clinic this past weekend. Urban voluntarily entered the rehabilitation center to overcome trouble with alcohol abuse in October 2006. Urban's publicist, Paul Freundlich, says Keith will now "ease back onto the stage with a short run of club shows in the United Kingdom and Germany in April".

2006 was a very successful year for Keith Urban. He and Nicole Kidman were married on June 25, 2006. Urban entered alcohol rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic in California in October of 2006 and his hit single, "Once in a Lifetime", broke a world record when it debuted at #17 on Billboard's country music charts. "Once in a Lifetime" was the highest debuting country single in 62 years.

Keith Urban's new album, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, was also released in November of 2006 and quickly reached #1 on country music charts even though he was in rehab at the time. Urban fans have supported him every step of the way throughout this significant time in his life. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was certified Platinum in 2006.

Urban is starting 2007 off right by kicking off his world tour for Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing with a few shows in the United Kingdom and Germany in April. Keith will be in Australia in May and the United States and Canada in June. To hear song samples from the album, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, visit Amazon.com at (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pain-whole-crazy-thing/dp/B000ICM5QW).

Keith Urban will also be doing a concert, the first one since his release from the Betty Ford Clinic, to benefit the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on February 8, 2007. The benefit concert is not part of the world tour, instead, it is a makeup concert that was supposed to happen in November of 2006 but didn't because Urban entered the Betty Ford Clinic. All tickets that were sold for the previously scheduled November concert will be honored at the concert in February. If you would like to get tickets to the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital concert, they go on sell this Friday, January 19, 2007.

Keith Urban was born on October 26, 1967 in Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand. He and his wife, Nicole Kidman, currently live in Nashville, TN. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing is currently at #3 on the Billboard's Top Country Album chart. "Stupid Boy", the second hit single from this album, is currently at #12 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.