Any romantic comedy fan will remember the iconic scene between Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson from "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" when the two go riding off on a motorcycle. The scene is a turning point for the movie's characters, and it is anchored by Keith Urban's 2002 hit, "Somebody Like You." Usually, earning a song placement in a well-known movie or television is a dream come true for a young artist, but for Urban, it quickly became a nightmare.
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The singer reminisced about having his song placed in the movie during a recent appearance on SiriusXM's "The Highway." When host Macie Banks asked about the process of getting his song into the film, Urban revealed that film producers asked him to re-record the tune exclusively for the movie.
"That's a great example of learning early on the price of, I wouldn't say selling out, but pretty darn close to it," Urban says. "We got asked to put that song in the movie and then there was like, 'By the way, you sing it kind of country-ish,' and I'm like, 'I just sing the way I sing.' They're like, 'Yeah, we just wondered if you could redo the vocal.'"
Urban acquiesced to their requests, telling himself "it's a big film." However, he soon found himself in a studio with film executives from Los Angeles in his ear.
"I'm in the studio in Nashville. There's all these executives from the film talking in my headphones while I'm at the microphone doing this vocal almost coaching me on how to sing the song," Urban says. "I'm like, 'Oh, I've made a deal with the devil here. There's no getting out of this.'"
"They're like, 'Yeah, kind of sing it more Bob Seger. Put a little more growl in the voice if you could,'" Urban adds of re-recording the song. "And I'm just like, 'Oh, what am I doing?' We got through it, and I think the end result was not that great. I was like, 'Rule No. 1: Just stay true to who you are.'"
Urban has released two new songs since the start of the year — "Straight Line" and "Messed Up as Me." The singer is working on a new album — the details of which he has yet to announce.
