Keith Urban was playing the first of two sold-out shows in New Hampshire this past Saturday, July 2, when he spotted a pair of concert-goers holding up signs. One sign, held by a young woman, read, “It’s my boyfriend’s birthday!” and had an arrow pointing to the other sign, held up by her boyfriend. His read, “Can I play your guitar?”
Urban could hardly say no. He brought the man, Robert Joyce, onstage and handed over his ax for him to play.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Rob kicked into Urban’s “Good Thing.” Since Urban had been planning to play an acoustic song on his own at that point in the show, his band was offstage. They quickly returned to the stage and joined in the performance.
As for Rob, let’s just say the man held his own just fine. Take a look. We’ve also included Taste of Country’s report, which includes additional footage. And when you’re done, check out Rob’s YouTube page for more of his guitar work.
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
