Fortunate Son - Press Releases

The unauthorised biography of Australia’s most successful country music star, Keith Urban.

Suburban loner, gifted guitarist, drug addict, planinum-plated superstar: Keith Urban has squeezed a lot of living into his 40 years. He now ranks with Kylie Minogue, INXS, Silverchair and Savage Garden as one of the country’s biggest musical exports of the past 20 years. 

Fortunate Son, the first  biography of this country hero,  tells the unlikely story of how Urban - who was born in New Zealand in 1967 but raised in Queensland -  followed and eventually fulfilled his dream by succeeding in the toughest country music market on the planet – Nashville.

In an age when songwriters generate most of the hit songs recorded in Music City, Urban is an anomaly: actually writing, or at least co-writing, most of his material.  Keith Urban’s success is undeniable: to date he’s sold more than five million albums, has scored five US Number One singles and typically sells out his stadium-sized shows in minutes.

His very public relationship with ‘our’ Nicole Kidman, whom he married in an A-list affair in June 2006, has earned Urban a totally new audience, as gossip mags across the planet chart the ‘Kurbans’ every move, and most recently the pregnancy and birth of their long-wished-for child, Sunday Rose. 

Fearfully frank and authoritative, and based upon extensive interviews with friends, foes and Urban insiders, Fortunate Son reveals how Keith Urban lived out his childhood dream - and the price he’s had to pay to reach the top of the music business.

Jeff Apter has written biographies of the bands Silverchair and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the singer Jeff Buckley. He also co-wrote Slats: The Michael Slater Story. He spent five years as the Music Editor of Rolling Stone and contributes to Vogue, GQ and The Sydney Morning Herald.

For further information  or to arrange an interview please contact Judy Jamieson-Green on 02 8923 9942 or via email jjamieson-green@randomhouse.com.au