Keith Urban is joining NBC’s The Voice as this season’s Mega Mentor. Beginning with next Monday’s (April 8th) episode, Keith will mentor the remaining artists who have made it through the battle rounds and get ready for the knockout rounds. Coaches Reba McEntire, John Legend, Chance the Rapper and Dan + Shay will choose the inner from their team to advance to the playoffs before the live shows start.
Keith spent a lot of his own time competiting in talent competitions on TV, even when he was just nine years old. While it was a bit of a brutal experience, it made him work even harder on his chosen craft.
“I was on a few singing talent TV shows when I was a kid, a bunch of them actually,” Keith recalls. “The first one I did I was nine-years-old and my Mom and Dad got me on to a TV show called Pot of Gold. It was a singing competition show with three judges, one of whom was just a really unfiltered, unapologetic, vicious, scathing kind of judge. (laughs) This was a long time before Simon Cowell’s template. This guy had it nailed, and at nine-years-old I was subjected to this, and I got kind of crucified by this judge. It didn’t faze me, you know? And then I went on other shows after that, but my experience with all of those was really loving good feedback, constructive feedback, even if it was something I needed to work on. I remember the judge telling me to kindly learn how to sing in tune. (laughs) I’m like, ‘Okay?!’”
Keith has been a coach on The Voice in Australia, a mentor on NBC’s The Voice here in the States and now a Mega Mentor. He also spent several years at the judges table for “American Idol.” The best part of this kind of job for Keith is the mentoring — helping contestants figure out what they need to work on to get better…in a nice way.
“Just getting good advice and honest advice was something I really loved and needed, so it was a no-brainer when I got asked to do it,” he says. “The first one I got asked to do was be a coach on The Voice in Australia on their first season, and I did it. I loved it. Then I did quite a few seasons of American Idol as a judge on American Idol and loved it. So, when The Voice here in the States asked me to come and be a mentor and now a Mega Mentor, whatever that means – I feel like a Transformer – I jumped at the opportunity, because the mentoring part I particularly love. I love that the most. I love being able to try and help an artist navigate some things they’ve got to work on and try and be constructive and helpful but also do it in a supportive way. Nobody wants to get humiliated in front of people, but you do need honest advice as well, so I love that opportunity.”
Keith previously appeared on The Voice as an advisor to Blake Shelton during Season 15 and also served as a coach in the Australian version of the competition show for Seasons 1, 10 and 11.
Keith recently released his new single, “Messed Up As Me,” and it’s currently closing in on Top 35 on the country charts.
