Keith Urban is one of the world’s most popular and successful musicians. He is married to Nicole Kidman, but aside from his professional life, people know him as a genuinely nice guy.
At one of his concerts in Gilford, New Hampshire, Urban proved his genuine kindness yet again. Urban spotted a young man, Rob Joyce, in the audience holding a sign that said “Can I play your guitar?” Urban noticed that the person next to Joyce had a sign that said “it’s my boyfriend’s birthday.” Urban took this as a sign and invited Joyce on stage to play his guitar.
Urban clasped Joyce’s hand and said, “you wanna play my guitar?” Joyce nodded in agreement and was welcomed on stage by the cheering crowd. Urban asked Joyce to introduce himself and also let his girlfriend, Lex, talk to the crowd. Lex said that they had met while playing pool at school and that Joyce was great at playing the guitar.
Urban then handed Joyce his guitar and asked him to play. Joyce started strumming and the crowd loved his playing. Urban then started singing and Joyce kept up with the music. As the performance went on, Joyce grew more confident and played incredibly well. Urban proclaimed that Joyce had “totally killed it” at the end of the performance.
The entire performance was filmed and uploaded to YouTube where it has gained over 3.8 million views, 16,000 likes, and 2,000 comments. People were amazed by Joyce’s talent and Urban’s niceness in giving him the opportunity to perform.
One comment on Youtube said, “First, the kid can play, no doubt. Cold open, not a guitar he’s used before, amazing. Then, Keith realizes the kid has serious chops and jumps in, and the band is like “ok then, let’s do this”. But, my favorite part isn’t even seen on the video. I’m pretty darn sure there’s a guitar tech behind the scenes that started to dial in the tone for Rob once he started playing, and by the time the solo came they gave him the volume punch he needed because there was no doubt he was the real deal and was going to nail it. Hats off to the techs for being a part of it. Awesome, just freaking awesome.”
Another said, “This video is proof of the fact that, for every badass musician fortunate enough to make their living doing what they love, there’s at least five in the crowd every bit as talented as they are who just haven’t quite been discovered yet.., Cool as hell.”
Joyce was able to follow his dreams from that moment on. For a time, he was the guitar player for Riley Green.
