Keith Urban On Taylor Swift Backlash: 'it's Easy To Sling Arrows'

By: Margy Holland

Keith Urban has been a longtime champion of Taylor Swift, taking her on the road and building a friendship with the singer, who recently referred to Keith and his wife, Nicole Kidman, as "shining lights in my life." The backlash from Taylor's Grammy performance has not gone unnoticed by Keith, who exclusively tells us that other factors need to be considered. "Of course it's easy to sling arrows at people for all sorts of reasons, but I will also say it can be pretty daunting and intimidating playing with some of these people, too, that we get to share the stages with."

Keith adds that what Taylor has done for music far outweighs what the critics have to say about her performance. "Taylor came out and did about 10 shows with us this year, and that's definitely a person that is passionate about coming out and really connecting with her audience. I think her audience would be the first ones to tell you that. It's somebody that's come along and injected a tremendous amount of -- and I hate to use this word but it really fits with her -- a tremendous amount of fearless enthusiasm into what we're doing, and there's been a lot of, a huge amount of pluses for it."

Keith is in Los Angeles this week writing for his next album, the followup to his 2009 release, Defying Gravity.

His latest single, "'Til Summer Comes Around," closes in on the Top 10 on the Billboard country charts.