Keith Urban: His amazing journey from daydreamer to superstar

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Four Grammys. 20 US Number Ones. A Hollywood marriage. Who wouldn't want to be Keith Urban? Keith Urban came from humble origins. His father worked at the local tip and Keith was a high school dropout. But Keith had a plan: conquering Nashville. 'It's my destiny,' he said. And Keith was hell-bent on scaling that musical Everest. Whatever it took. It didn't come easy. Keith served his apprenticeship in the beer barns of Australia and his early trips to America were disastrous. But he never gave up, settling in Nashville in the 1990s and forming The Ranch. When the band fell apart, so did Keith, ending up in rehab (not for the last time). But Keith did eventually reach the top, through a combination of talent, charisma, sex appeal, dogged perseverance-and skin thick enough for a rhino. And along the way he married Nicole Kidman. As Keith has said, 'All those detours, especially the really dark ones, got me to where I am now. I would not want to change one leaf on any tree in the whole journey.' Keith Urban is the definitive biography of an Australian superstar.

Inspired by Jerry Hopkins' biography of The Doors, No One Here Gets Out Alive, and a stint on lead kazoo for bedroom band The Rulers, Jeff Apter has written more than 30 books about Australian music and musicians. His subjects include Bon Scott, Daniel Johns, AC/DC's Young brothers, Marc Hunter, Johnny O'Keefe, Jon English and many others. As a ghostwriter and/or co-writer, Jeff has worked with Kasey Chambers, Richard Clapton and Mark Evans (formerly of AC/DC), and was on staff at Rolling Stone for several years. Jeff lives on the NSW South Coast with his wife and two children, and enough pets to fill a small zoo.