Keith Urban Teams Up With Julia Michaels On New Song "Coming Home" (LISTEN)

Keith Urban, Julia Michaels

When Keith Urban teased that he was "writing, recording, collaborating and creating with some incredibly talented people for Graffiti U, a lot of who [he's] never worked with before," he wasn't kidding! The country megastar has teamed up with Julia Michaels, who took the pop world by storm last year, on a brand new song called "Coming Home" -- which also reinvents some of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried."

Ever hear the phrase, "There's no place like home" from The Wizard of Oz? Keith's "Coming Home" has the same meaning -- there's no place like home. In the song, he sings, "The place that I know, where they all know me/I gotta get back now to the ones who love me/Wrap myself around you, never let you go/There's nothing in the world that feels like coming home."

In a press release, Keith explained of building on "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard, who receives a writing credit on the new song, "'Coming Home' started with an idea I had of using the intro of one of my favorite Haggard songs 'Mama Tried' - to build an entirely new song around it. Then, I took the idea to J.R. Rotem and he put some chords around it. I jotted down the first words that the music made me feel, jumped on a mic and sang the chorus."

Keith also explained of working with Julia Michaels, "Julia's writing contribution extended into the idea of the need to want to physically be home. She summed up the whole story in one sentence. 'Yeah, I know it’s only one call away, but it’s not the same.' For me, that simple phrase said so much, especially when she sang it!" He added, "I called Theresa Haggard and Ben Haggard to play them what we’d been working on. It was important to me to have their blessing, and I’m so grateful that they love the song."

On Twitter, Keith had teased the single ahead of its official release, dropping clues with a photo of a banjo with Merle Haggard's Mama Tried album and Julia's Nervous System EP underneath. He captioned the picture with a few of the song's lyrics, "There's a place that I know where they all know me..."

Watch Keith Urban's "Coming Home" lyric video below.

"Coming Home" is another taste of Urban's upcoming Graffiti U record, which is his 10th full-length studio album. Fans have heard other previously released songs, "Female" and "Parallel Line."

Keith told Billboard of the album's title, "The first letter of my last name is 'U,' and I like the double play on that, that it's a letter but also when you say it, it's 'you,' We're in such the 'I' generation right now with iPhones and iThis and iThat, and I thought it'd be nice to flip that, and for me remind the audience, the listener, that this is about you."

Urban kicks off his "Graffiti U" tour on June 15th in St. Louis, MO. For a full list of tour dates, click HERE.

But before Urban treks across North America, the country star will be taking the stage during the 2018 iHeartCountry Festival by AT&T at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas on May 5th. This year's lineup includes country superstars like Luke Bryan, Dustin Lynch, Cole Swindell, Maren Morris, Sugarland, Luke Combs, Billy Currington, Dan + Shay, Jon Pardi, and Brett Young.


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