Keith Urban's Surprise Yacht Rock Album Wasn't Even His Idea

Keith Urban’s Surprise Yacht Rock Album Wasn’t Even His Idea

After buying a studio in Nashville, he spent about nine months getting the space up and running... "I was so frustrated because I was like, 'I wanna record something,'"

CMA Fest 2026 - Day Two — Source: Taylor Hill / Getty

Keith Urban’s Surprise Yacht Rock Album Wasn’t Even His Idea

Keith Urban is about to shake up the music world, and even he didn’t see it coming. On Friday (June 12), the country superstar releases his 13th studio album, Flow State, a collection of breezy yacht rock covers pulled from the 1970s and 1980s. Aside from one original track, “We Go Back,” featuring soul legend Michael McDonald, the entire record is built on classic soft-rock favorites.

So how did one of country’s most celebrated guitarists end up making a yacht rock album? According to Urban, it happened almost by accident.

In an exclusive interview with Taste of Country Nights, Urban explained that none of this was planned. After buying a studio in Nashville, he spent about nine months getting the space up and running. With his High and Alive world tour looming, he felt the itch to create.

“I was so frustrated because I was like, ‘I wanna record something,'” Urban recalls.

He pulled together a session band and decided to lay down a couple of yacht rock songs just for fun, mostly to break in the new studio. The vibe was so good that the band kept going, recording more and more tracks once Urban returned from the road.

“Across four months or so, this album started to reveal itself,” he says. “It wanted to get made. I just needed to keep up with it.”