Keith Urban turns Daytona 500 into "Days of Thunder from Down Under"

Country music star Keith Urban performed a surprise two-song set for reporters to kick off his day at the Daytona 500, where he was the featured artist for Sunday's pre-race concert.

"First time playing a press room," he quipped before launching into "Sister Golden Hair" by America.

Read the entire story about Keith and the race HERE.

Local Girl, Nicole Kidman, Starring in a Scandalous Movie

Christian groups are up in arms here over a new children's film starring Nicole Kidman and based on an award-winning novel by British author Philip Pullman, accusing it of being anti-religious.

"The Golden Compass" which opens here Friday is the film version of "The Northern Lights," the first book in Pullman's "Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy aimed at teenage readers.

The books by confirmed agnostic Pullman trace the fate of a young girl, Lyra, as she becomes drawn into an apocalyptic battle of good against evil, meeting a host of strange characters along the way including a polar bear, voiced in the film by Ian McKellan.

Evil in Pullman's books is represented by the church, called the Magisterium, whose acolytes kidnap orphans across England to subject them to horrible experiments in the frozen northern wastelands.

Read more in Google News.

Keith Urban is Finally Back Home in Nashville

~Keith Urban has toured internationally this year, but it's tonight's Sommet Center show that really makes him excited.

~As he begins what he says is a new chapter in his life, he can't help but reflect on his career.

"It doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I was playing the Ace of Clubs and 12th and Porter.

To go from those little places up to this venue is just amazing. It's a great feeling; I certainly don't take it for granted."

The couple purchased a Middle Tennessee farm this year that they're currently renovating.

"Ironically, the first place I took her to was out near Leiper's Fork," he said. "That ended up being out in the general area where we will now call home. I just knew that she would love it for the exact same reasons I love it. There's a pace and a way of living that is much more spiritually satisfying to me than a lot of other places."

Of his farm, he says, "It's something that has quite a bit of room to walk around and grow some grass under our feet and have some privacy, but not feel like we're isolated. We don't want to live in a compound. It's the great thing about Tennessee and especially Nashville. The people are just real people, so they just accept you being neighbors.

He said the couple has a good rhythm here. "Nashville suited us as a couple very quicky. So having been away now for so long making this film, we are just both anxious to get back into that groove again."
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Read all about Keith being at the Sommet Center and loving Nashville in the Beverly Keel column in the Tennessean newspaper.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman to Sell Their Nashville Home

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have a contract to sell their home in Nashville, Tenn., after less than two months on the market.

Oscar-winner Ms. Kidman and her husband, the Grammy Award-winning country singer, wanted $2.45 million for the four-bedroom house on two acres. A closing is expected this month. The sale price couldn't be determined.

Located in the Forest Hills neighborhood south of downtown Nashville, the 2004 house measures roughly 8,700 square feet, public records show. A trust purchased the property in 2005, for $1.72 million, the records show. It has a large exercise room, recreation room and outdoor swimming pool. Rick French of French Christianson Patterson & Associates has the listing.

Visit the Wall Street Journal to read more.

Keith Urban and the Paparazzi

I have taken the picture of Keith Urban walking down the street and being chased by the stalkerazzi. I have said before on this blog that I didn't like the paparazzi and I thing they are awful in the way they treat people as objects and don't regard they privacy or their family time.

I didn't think about it when I put the picture up and a friend of mine mentioned it. I wish nothing but the best for Keith and Nicole and I hope and pray that the paparazzi never comes to Nashville.

Keith Urban in a Motorcyle Accident in Sydney, Australia

See Why We Don't Want the Paparazzi in Nashville?

~C.S. Webbspun

Keith Urban was in a motorcycle accident today in Sydney, Australia, after being followed by paparazzi. He was not injured.

This morning, Urban released the following statement, "Today's incident was the result of one person's desire to do his job and my desire to maintain my privacy. Some have already attempted to inflate the facts, but the reality is this: while out riding to an AA meeting, a time when my privacy is especially important to me, I felt myself being pursued.

"I sped up, and in an effort to elude an oncoming car which was making an illegal U-turn, saw no choice but to drop my bike. In actual fact, my pursuer came to my assistance, without taking photos, and helped me from the road. I returned home, got my car, and continued on my way."

This comes from

BEVERLY KEEL

Staff Writer

Tennessean