Whatever your personal feelings toward her, Taylor Swift has changed the music industry. In 2024 alone, the “Anti-Hero” singer won her 14th Grammy, released a new album, and wrapped up her stunningly successful “Eras” Tour. But in 2009, Swift was a 19-year-old up-and-coming country singer opening for Keith Urban. The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer recently shared some insight into what touring with Taylor Swift is like—including the elaborate prank she once pulled on him.
Taylor Swift and Her Band Dressed Up As Kiss
Even before she was selling out stadiums across the globe, Taylor Swift knew how to have fun on tour. During a recent appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Keith Urban recalled one joke that still has him laughing to this day.
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While opening for Keith Urban on his Escape Together World Tour in 2009, Swift enlisted members of her band to dress up as members of the hard rock band Kiss. They debuted their look onstage during Urban’s performance of “Kiss a Girl.”
“I thought it was Kiss for a minute,” the “Messed Up As Me” hitmaker admitted. “It was so good.”
Swift even documented the prank on her YouTube vlog, which you can watch below.
“This is our last night on the Keith Urban tour,” a curly-haired, 19-year-old Swift tells the camera. “Therefore, we need to prank him.”
Keith Urban Always Saw Something Special in Taylor Swift
Fifteen years and millions of album sales later, the world knows what Keith Urban has always known—Taylor Swift is the real deal. The four-time Grammy Award winner gushed to Jennifer Hudson that Swift “was amazing even back then.”
[RELATED: Keith Urban Says Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is The “Best of the Best”]
“I always stood up front and watched her sing, and I’m like, ‘Oh she is singing way off into this other thing,’” he said, gesturing into the distance. “You could see it. She was playing way past where she was already.”
That’s why it was a no-brainer for Urban when, years later, the “Fortnight” singer asked him to collaborate with her.
“She just texted me and said, ‘I have a song that I want you to sing on,’” he said. “I said, ‘Can you send me the song?’ The next thing, she texts me the song — I was in a food court at a shopping mall at the time.”
“That’s When,” featuring Keith Urban, appeared as a From the Vault track on Fearless (Taylor’s Version), the 2021 re-recording of Swift’s 2008 sophomore album.
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