Keith Urban looks back on the “good bones” of his breakthrough album, ’Golden Road’

Looking back on his breakthrough album, Golden Road, Keith Urban says the songs have stood the test of time in a way he didn’t imagine when he was making the record 20 years ago.

Released in 2002, Golden Road features several of the Australia native’s signature hits, like “Somebody Like You” and “You’ll Think of Me,” and he attributes the album’s enduring success to its “good bones.” Golden Road debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and has since been certified triple Platinum.

“Some of these songs have proved much more resilient than I imagined at the time, not that I was thinking that far ahead. I never have, I’m always in the moment. I wasn’t thinking about these songs being played 20 years later,” Keith explains. “It’s crazy, but I think they were built right from the beginning, and so they continue to have good bones … I think they can take a fresh coat of paint every few seasons and not lose their center, but still flow with the other songs really well.”

Looking at his career as a whole, Keith notes that while his sound has evolved over time, the heart of his music hasn’t changed, one of the many ways his songs connect through the years.

“I think for all the changes that I may have or not have made musically over the years, there is threads that go through all of it. I didn’t go make a speed metal record one year and then polka the next record. There’s threads through all of it, and I think playing live is the premier opportunity for me to show that those songs thread together and make sense together much more than sometimes albums alone,” he says.

Keith recently dropped his new single, “Brown Eyes Baby.”