Keith Urban, 4-Time Grammy Winner, Reveals He 'Completely Failed' Music Class in High School

Mar. 15, 2025

Keith Urban.Photo:Terry Wyatt/Getty

Terry Wyatt/Getty

Even renowned musicians likeKeith Urbanfailed a class in school.During a Thursday, Sept. 26 appearance onThe Kelly Clarkson Show, the “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer — a four-time Grammy winner — revealed he failed music class in high school.The conversation began withKelly Clarkson, 42, asking who was “an important music teacher” for him growing up.“Oh my gosh. Mrs. Grimmer… She was my music teacher in 10th grade, and she was an amazing teacher,” Urban, 56, said. “I can’t read music, and a lot of the kids in the class couldn’t read music [and] didn’t have any theory but were amazing musicians.““But we were all gonna fail music because it was all theory-based,” he continued. “She wrote an entire play for us to perform, and we were gonna be graded on the play and the performance. Everybody did it.“Toward the end of the year, however, his school principal said the performance was not part of the curriculum, so Urban “failed music” — “completelyfailed,” emphasized the artist.The story left Clarkson in utter shock. “Hilarious!” she exclaimed. “That’s like Neil DeGrasse Tyson failing science.“On Thursday night, Urban also appeared at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards to perform “Messed Up as Me” from his newly-released albumHigh.Meanwhile, on Sept. 24, Urban treated viewers onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonto an impromptu performance ofSabrina Carpenter’s summer hit “Espresso.”Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this month, the “Somebody Like You” singer said he thought he’d be releasing a completely different record last year.Keith Urban.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty“I scrapped another album,”he told PEOPLE. “I finished an album in early 2023, 13 tracks, and decided to scrap pretty much the whole thing.”At the time, Urban wasn’t “getting the feeling from the record” that he hoped for.“Sometimes, if I don’t know what to do, I’ll start with figuring out what I don’t want to do, and I made the record that I didn’t want to make apparently to figure out which one did I want to make,” he added.

Even renowned musicians likeKeith Urbanfailed a class in school.

During a Thursday, Sept. 26 appearance onThe Kelly Clarkson Show, the “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer — a four-time Grammy winner — revealed he failed music class in high school.

The conversation began withKelly Clarkson, 42, asking who was “an important music teacher” for him growing up.

“Oh my gosh. Mrs. Grimmer… She was my music teacher in 10th grade, and she was an amazing teacher,” Urban, 56, said. “I can’t read music, and a lot of the kids in the class couldn’t read music [and] didn’t have any theory but were amazing musicians.”

“But we were all gonna fail music because it was all theory-based,” he continued. “She wrote an entire play for us to perform, and we were gonna be graded on the play and the performance. Everybody did it.”

Toward the end of the year, however, his school principal said the performance was not part of the curriculum, so Urban “failed music” — “completelyfailed,” emphasized the artist.

The story left Clarkson in utter shock. “Hilarious!” she exclaimed. “That’s like Neil DeGrasse Tyson failing science.”

On Thursday night, Urban also appeared at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards to perform “Messed Up as Me” from his newly-released albumHigh.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 24, Urban treated viewers onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonto an impromptu performance ofSabrina Carpenter’s summer hit “Espresso.”

Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this month, the “Somebody Like You” singer said he thought he’d be releasing a completely different record last year.

Keith Urban.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

“I scrapped another album,”he told PEOPLE. “I finished an album in early 2023, 13 tracks, and decided to scrap pretty much the whole thing.”

At the time, Urban wasn’t “getting the feeling from the record” that he hoped for.

“Sometimes, if I don’t know what to do, I’ll start with figuring out what I don’t want to do, and I made the record that I didn’t want to make apparently to figure out which one did I want to make,” he added.

source: people.com