How ‘The Fighter’ Was Inspired by the Early Days of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s Relationship

"I literally just thought about Nic and I and our relationship at the beginning and some of the things that we'd said and that were born into that song,” he shared. 

Written by Lauren Laffer
How ‘The Fighter’ Was Inspired by the Early Days of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s Relationship
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman; Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage

After notching his 22nd No.1 song with “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” Keith Urban is back at country radio with the uptempo track “The Fighter,” featuring Carrie Underwood. The song is one Urban wrote fairly quickly upon thinking of the early days in his relationship with his now wife Nicole Kidman.

“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 that we’d said and that were born into that song,” Urban told Sounds Like Nashville and other media recently.

Urban wrote the song with busbee, who also serves as a producer on the track and several others from Ripcord. It came during a time they were working in London, while Kidman was busy starring in a stage production.

“[It’s] probably the fastest song that I’ve written in a long, long time. The idea came very quickly and I was working with busbee that day, we were in London and I was actually driving to the studio to work on this other song we had started and I had most of the chorus in my head and it felt like I had most of the song in my head, it just had to flesh out, just the verses and everything,” Urban recalled.

“I walked into the studio and played him the chord progression and he built this track really quickly and then I could sing over the top of it. I think we put down the chords pretty much straight away with busbee filling in where the girl would sing. I still have copies of him going ‘What if I fall,’ it’s fantastic.”

busbee’s voice stood as a placeholder in the demo for a long time until Urban was finally able to hear Underwood sing on the track, which eventually landed on Ripcord and at country radio. “The Fighter” is currently in the Top 30 on the Mediabase country charts.

The song resonating with fans is praise enough for the songwriter, who has many triumphs to his name from throughout the years. But while the accolades are all appreciated, Urban admits that marrying his muse is the best accomplishment of all.

“Marrying Nic, because everything for me… everything good in my life that’s happened came after that,” Urban shared. “For me, sobriety, having children, everything started to come after that so that’s hands down.”