Keith's sign of successBy Brett Debritz

SIXTEEN years ago, Keith Urban was a skinny singer-songwriter with an ill-advised hairdo but with his eyes very much on the prize of superstardom.

Whether he imagined marriage to a beautiful film star or the battles with addiction that were to come, I'm not sure.

But Urban, who will kick off his Australian tour in Brisbane on May 11, certainly knew he wanted to be in Nashville, writing and recording his own songs.

Back in the early 1990s, with the help of a pushy publicist, he did the rounds of the Queensland media, trying to leverage his success at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, where he won the Starmaker Award one year and the Golden Guitar the next, into something a little more substantial.

These days, he rarely gives interviews, preferring to make announcements in words and video on his website, keithurban.net.

Back then, however, he told me how it all began at the age of two when he began strumming a ukulele to songs on the radio.

Before the family's move to Caboolture on Brisbane's northern outskirts, Urban's parents (who had recently migrated from New Zealand) owned a shop in East Brisbane.

"One day," he told me, "a music teacher came along and asked how much it would cost to put an ad in the window.

"They said: 'Teach our son to play and we'll put it in'."

By the time he was 14, Urban was a regular on the pub circuit. First success at Tamworth came at 22, and by June 1991 he was able to say: "Making music is all I've ever done. I've never had a day job."

He had a deal with EMI, a hit with a single called Only You, and a ticket to Los Angeles, with his sights firmly set on success in the US.

His success at Tamworth notwithstanding, Urban had made his mark as a performer who wasn't afraid to crank up the tempo and the volume.

"The country influence is there," he said of his self-titled debut album.

"But remember I started out on the Brisbane pub circuit playing rock'n'roll."

Fast-forward to 2007, and Urban, 39, has won a swag of awards, including a Grammy, married Nicole Kidman, spent a spell in rehab, but is raring to go on a world tour that will officially start in Brisbane before taking him to arenas around Australia and North America.

Tickets for the May 11 Brisbane Entertainment Centre gig go on sale on February 15 from www.ticketek.com.au  or 132 849.