Country music star Alana Springsteen credits Keith Urban with changing her life as child
Alana Springsteen is about to go on tour with Keith Urban, who changed her life without even knowing it.
"Keith is one of those guys that I’ve looked up to for so long," Springsteen told Fox News Digital during her first ever appearance at the Stagecoach Festival.
"I don’t know if he knows this, but he basically taught me how to play guitar when I was nine-years-old. I just remember having his records on repeat, trying to learn those licks, those riffs, just obsessed with his songwriting, obsessed with everything he does, so to be on tour with him is so special."
The 24-year-old first met Urban at a show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, then again at Summerfest in Milwaukee.
"He actually asked me to come up and sing ‘We Were Us’ with him, so that was the first time we really connected, and that was so special," she recalled. "I love that song. I just hope I did Miranda [Lambert] proud, it’s so iconic."
She continued, "And from that point on, we just hit it off, and I’m so grateful he asked me to come out on this tour. He’s an incredible entertainer, one of my favorite live shows I’ve ever seen, so I just can’t wait to learn from him and can’t wait to talk more and have that family experience."
Springsteen will tour with Urban for his High and Alive World Tour kicking off this month.
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Springsteen also wrote her first song at the age of nine, around the time she discovered Urban’s music.
"It was called ‘Fairy Tale,’" she said. "And even back then, at nine years old, I was obsessed with love, just such a romantic. [I] didn’t know the first thing about love or heartbreak, but I was writing about it."
WATCH: COUNTRY STAR ALANA SPRINGSTEEN EXPLAINS HOW KEITH URBAN ‘TAUGHT’ HER GUITAR
The "Goodbye Looks Good on You" singer added, "It was actually based on my parents’ love story, how they met, how they fell in love, all of that. And from writing that song, it was game over. I just fell in love with the process of taking what was in here and getting it out, because that was hard for me as a kid to be honest. I was more of an introvert in a very loud, big-personality family. I was the one that would just find a corner in my room and sit down and journal or write about my feelings, so having that outlet was so special."
Springsteen’s debut album, "Twenty Something," was released in 2023 to rave reviews.
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Since then, the Virginia-born star has "grown in so many ways."
"‘Twenty Something’ was a super personal album. It was my debut album," she told Fox News Digital. "I wanted to kind of start peeling back those layers, being real with my fans, telling that story of messing it up and figuring it out and hopefully getting it right. But it was only the tip of the iceberg."
She continued, "I walked out of that album feeling more confident and empowered than I ever have. And it was crazy to watch how that started to change things in my life."
However, it did highlight one negative thing for the country star.
"The people close to me didn’t always empower that side of me, and that started to raise some alarms for me, and I went, 'I got to do some work, there’s more work that I need to do,' and this next chapter is that work," Springsteen said.
When it came to writing her next album, she says, "These songs helped heal me. They are therapy sessions in the form of writing sessions and I reached [a] new level of depth and vulnerability I didn’t know was possible for me."
Springsteen got the chance to play some of her new music at Stagecoach, a festival she’s "been dreaming" of playing for years.
"It’s an iconic festival, and it feels even better to be out here in the desert in the ambiance of it all. We had a lot of rehearsals gearing up for it, there’s a lot of new songs I wanted in the set. I’m about to enter this next chapter of music, so introducing those new songs is really important to me."