Keith Urban has another hit on his hands with “The Fighter,” his fifth single released from his current album Ripcord.  The song, which features superstar Carrie Underwood on vocals, is currently No. 23 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and turned out to be one of the fastest written songs Keith has ever completed.

“It just came out incredibly quick,” recalls Keith. “The idea came very quickly and I was working with [producer and co-writer] busbee that day—we were in London.  I was actually driving to the studio to work on this other song that we’d started. I walked into the studio and played him the chord progression and he built this track really quickly. I think we put down the chorus straight away, with busbee filling in where the girl would sing (laughs). It was just a very quick song to write. I literally just thought about Nic and I and our relationship at the beginning and some of the things we said and it all went in on that song.”

With seven ACM nominations under his belt, including Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year, Keith looks at the recognition as icing on the cake.

“As an artist creating something, for me the goal is to get out what I had in and to get it out completed, and to get the picture right,” Keith said. “If I achieve that, that’s the first feeling of—you just feel fantastic. There’s just an incredible joy in that happening.  Then when it gets nominated for something it’s crazy. I guess it would be like watching one of our daughters win something as well. Having her was everything, and now she’s winning something, it’s like, ‘Bonus.'”

You can catch Keith at the 2017 ACM Awards on ABC, live from T-mobile arena in Las Vegas on April 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzT4p-OaJ5c