The news that actress Nicole Kidman and country singer Keith Urban are separating after nearly two decades together has shocked fans. Considering the couple had been through so much, including Urban's drug use and rehab, and seemed happy together when they appeared in public, a lot of people are curious about just what happened.
That curiosity has led some to dig up an old Instagram post that Keith Urban put up nearly two years ago. It’s about a song called “Straight Line,” which would be the first single released from the singer’s most recent album. In the post, Urban describes the song as being about distancing from parts of our lives that we find “soul sucking,” including, curiously, relationships. Urban said in part…
“Straight Line” is wanting to break out of a soul-sucking routine that you might be stuck in: maybe in a relationship, a job, with creativity, with yourself...whatever it is !! It’s a message of feeling alive again and getting out from under that dark cloud.
It should be said that, Taylor Swift notwithstanding, not every song a singer writes is supposed to be autobiographical. Just because he sings a song that might suggest that escaping soul sucking relationships is a good idea, doesn’t mean he’s actually in one. What’s more, Urban is only one of four credited songwriters on the piece, so even if there are autobiographical elements in the song, it doesn’t mean they belong to Urban.
While many of Keith Urban's songs were written solely by him, country music in general is a genre in which songwriters thrive. Many of Urban's songs he wasn't involved in writing at all, and in the cases where he was involved, it's difficult to say how big a contributor he was.
“Straight Line” was released nearly two years ago, and at that point, there was little indication that anything was going on between Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. While some have suggested the relationship had been struggling for some time, the pair were still being seen in public together, and there were certainly no outward indications of trouble. Whether the decision to divorce is something that’s been coming or something recent is still far from clear.
While various “insiders” have spoken out on the pair in recent days, all with something to add that helps explain things, as it stands right now, it just appears the couple, who are both quite successful in their own fields, have been moving in different directions for some time. There may not be anything deeper than that going on here.
Interviews will almost certainly be given in the future that will push both Urban and Kidman to talk about their split, and at some point, the rest of the world may get more clarity as to what led them down this road. Maybe Keith Urban will write a song about it, unless of course he did already.
