Keith Urban is one of my favorite singers and I'd like to know all about him. Does he have a family?
—Sandy H., New York
Keith Urban, who grew up in the Australian farm town of Caboolture, has never married, but he recently dated supermodel Niki Taylor. Although he's a continent away, he remains close to his parents and brother. His parents, Bob and Marienne Urban, helped get him started playing guitar when a young woman asked to place an ad in his dad's shop window offering guitar lessons. They let her advertise in return for lessons for their 6-year-old son. His mom answers fan mail addressed to his website, KeithUrban.net. Urban wrote or co-wrote eight of the 12 songs on his second solo album, Golden Road. The singer, who won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2001, toured this summer with Kenny Chesney. Also in 2001, Urban won the Academy of Country Music's Top New Male Vocalist award. "I think a little bit more of my Aussie pub influence has come back into my playing," he says. "It has a certain primal rawness to it and I think I'm starting to let that come out again."
