Keith Urban Honors Jimmy Buffett On Stage

After Keith Urban learned of the death of Jimmy Buffett this weekend (9/1), he honored his friend at a show in Atlantic City. Keith posted the moment to his Instagram.

Urban told the crowd, "I'll just take a second to acknowledge the passing of an incredible musician, Jimmy Buffett." The crowd cheers as Keith continues, "I was shocked today to hear about that. I was immediately thinking about a time when we got to go down to St. Barts. We got an invite from Jimmy to go have dinner with him and his wife.  And when we were down there, Jimmy said to me. 'Man, you should grab your guitar; there's a bar in town, and I'm sure if we take our guitars, they'll let us sit in.' So, there's me and Jimmy carrying our guitars down the street in St. Barts and go to this cool bar, and we sang a couple of songs, and my wife was with me (he shows a photo of Nicole with Jimmy and his wife) of course, so there's Jimmy and Nic right there and Janie in front of Jimmy."

Urban strums his guitar and adds, "It was such an honor to know him. It's a huge loss, but an incredible legacy of music that he has left us. (This is) One of the first songs that I learned when I started playing guitar." He plays Buffett's classic "Come Monday." After that, he played "Margaritaville."

Not long ago, Keith told me how he first introduced country music to his wife, Nicole Kidman. He revealed, "The very first song I played here was 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way' by Waylon Jennings. I didn't tell her anything; she just got in the car one day, and I hit play, and that kick drum started, and the guitar started."

Urban adds, "She starts bopping her head and says, 'Aw, I like this! What's this?' So she was hooked from then on."

In the same interview, Keith told me about the music that his family listened to when he was a kid in Australia. He offered, "There was such a healthy mix of contemporary country music from my dad's record collection. But also, I was just spoon-fed radio, Top 40 radio as a little kid; even in Dad's car, we always listened to the radio. Even in the house, we seemed to listen to the radio more than we watched TV."

Country music has a long history of couples making music together. Back in the 1970s, George Jones and Tammy Wynette's marriage and then divorce was a source of fascination. Especially as the couple continued to perform duets together after their divorce. You can watch their turbulent relationship play out on Showtime's George & Tammy, which stars Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon in the title roles.

Then in the late 1990s, country fans could not get enough of the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill love story that started when Faith opened shows for McGraw on his 1996 "Spontaneous Combustion Tour." The couple went on to make beautiful music together through the years. In 2021, they played husband and wife James and Margaret Dutton in the Paramount Plus mini-series 1883.

Nowadays, we look to country music couple Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn, who scored a number one with the sensational song and video "Thank God." That video won the top prize at the 2023 CMT Awards for Video of the Year. In a moment the couple shared on stage when they accepted the honor, Katelyn gushed, "This is all so new to me, and when we recorded this song a year ago, I never in my life would ever think that this was going to happen."

The Browns chart-topper also made history, becoming the first husband and wife to top the country music charts since Tim and Faith did so in 1997 with "It's Your Love."

Today (8/18) is National Couples Day. It's a day for couples to commemorate their journey together. It's a great day to remember to spend time together and cherish and celebrate the bond that the couple shares.

To celebrate this meaningful day, we listed nine of the sweetest couples in country music.

These two started dating after meeting on NBC's The Voice in 2015 and got married in 2022. They are one of entertainment's biggest and most watched couples today. They enjoyed music success together on their number-one country duets, "Nobody But You" and "Happy Anywhere." They post about their happy life together on social media often, and their millions of followers love every minute of it.

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Keith and Nicole married in 2006 and have enjoyed 17 years of wedded bliss along with their two daughters Sunday, 15, and Faith, who is 13. Watching the Oscar-winning Kidman sit front and center at country music award shows supporting her man is always a joy. When Urban won the coveted Entertainer of the Year honor from the ACMs in 2018, Nic (as he calls her) was right by his side.

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These two superstars in country music will celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary in October. With their two successful country careers through the years, they have often been called "country music royalty," and that's really what they are. On social media, the couple often celebrates each other and their three grown daughters, Grace, Maggie, and Audrey.

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This young couple glow when they walk red carpets together. Their duet "Thank God" is now a staple of country radio, and the song and video earned them much praise from critics, listeners, and their peers. The couple is still in their twenties and often post family fun about their two young daughters, Kingsley and Kodi.

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Luke and Nicole met while on a songwriting retreat, and the couple has been inseparable ever since. They were married in 2020 and have since had their one-year-old son Tex. Any day now, they are expecting their second baby, a boy, to add to their growing family. Walking many red carpets together through the years of Combs' success, the couple shine, walking arm in arm.

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Garth and Trisha are another example of country music "royalty." The couple has known each other since the very beginning of their careers in Nashville in the early 1990s. They have been friends that bloomed into love and a marriage that has lasted 18 years to date. Through the years, they have recorded several duets together and tour with one another, as Trisha opens most of Garth's shows.

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Maren and Ryan met in a songwriting room and have been connected ever since. Since they married, the couple had a baby boy, who was born in 2020 during the pandemic. They have recorded a handful of duets through the years, including "Chasing After You," which they performed at the 56th Annual ACM Awards in 2021.

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Lainey brought her new man with her to officially announce they were dating at the 2023 ACM Awards. She won Female Vocalist and Album of the Year at the show for "Bell Bottom Country." Wilson recently said of writing songs after dating former Pittsburgh NFL football player Devlin Hodges, "I've never written a love song in my life until the last two and a half years."

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Kelsea started dating "Outer Banks" actor Chase Stokes earlier this year. The two have been seen walking red carpets together in Nashville and Hollywood. He recently surprised her at a show in California, flying the Red-eye from North Carolina, where he was filming his show. The sweet actor flew just to spend a few hours with his girl before heading back East for work.