When People magazine caught up with Keith Urban at the Academy of Country Music Awards earlier this week, the conversation was all about his new single “The Fighter.”

 

The song features Carrie Underwood, and he brought her out to join him on the tune during his ACM Awards performance.

 

And if it wasn’t for her, well, he can’t even think about that.

 

“I would have had to have thought of somebody quick,” Urban said. “I think if Carrie said no, we were set with the schedule and everything, we would have just had to leave that song off the record.

 

“That would have given me time to find the right person. I wouldn’t rush the wrong person in there just to make a record. Thank goodness she said yes,” he said.

 

His wife Nicole Kidman — reportedly the inspiration for the song — is in awe of her husband’s songwriting chops.

 

“I remember when he first played it for me, and I started to cry because … he writes these things — they come out of I don’t know — and they’re like beautiful gifts,” she said.