Keith Urban is a musician who's earned his stripes and then some. Few people can match the country star's accolades or pure talent! So, when he decides to compliment a fellow artist, people are going to pay attention! It's just that... the "compliment" here sounds dangerously close to an insult.
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Urban spoke on a recent episode of Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie, giving the radio show its fair share of voice clips to use. During the conversation, Miley Cyrus came up. Urban then laid on the mother of all compliments, saying, "I love that voice, man, that voice. She sounds like an ashtray. And I mean that as a compliment. She sounds like the carpet at the RSL!"
Urban sang Cyrus' "Flowers" at a show, so the fact that Cyrus came up wasn't shocking at all. It's just... few people think of an ashtray and associate it with pleasant, positive things, you know? "You sound like an ashtray" sounds like you can't sing and should find a new job. But, hey, Urban said it was a compliment, so who am I to decide differently?
Keith Urban Says That Miley Cyrus 'Sounds Like An Ashtray'
Additionally, Urban's been pretty nice to a few singers in the game! In fact, he praised the heck out of Taylor Swift after she released The Tortured Poets Department. Speaking to PEOPLE, Urban said, "I mean, God, Taylor's songwriting, it's so extraordinary. There's really no adjectives for it. She's such a great, great writer. So this new album is just more proof of that in really great ways."
In that same interview, he turned his attention toward Ariana Grande. He was absolutely head-over-heels for Grande's "We Can't Be Friends" song. "I don't know what is going on with that song, but I cannot stop playing it. It's like audible heroin. Literally, I have to have another hit," Urban stated.
"I play that thing over and over and over." You know what? I'm willing to do a live reversal -- Urban likely did have nothing but good intentions with the "ashtray" comment! Cyrus does have something of a "smokey" voice that lends itself to a unique vocal range!