An Open Letter to Keith Urban — Thank you for your music and the joy it has given us.

September 2008

To Keith Urban,

My name is Maurice Lambert and I just wanted to let you know how much we love your music and thank you for the joy it gave to my wife and me. My wife, Sandra Kay Lambert, became a true fan of you and your music while dragging me along to concerts until I too became a fan as well. What follows is a story of how your music has brought joy to my wife and me. Your music was likely the last thing my dear wife heard when she passed away in July of 2008.

My late-wife and I are approximately the age of your parents. A few years ago my dear wife began acting like a teenager when she talked about you and your music. I kidded her about me being married to a teenage grandmother. She dearly loved our son and daughter-in-law and being a grandmother to our beautiful grandchildren as well as being a giddy fan of yours. I think there might have been a small place in the back of my wife's head where she fantasized about being young enough to attract your attention. She actually acted much younger than her years when she talked about you; I loved seeing her so happy.

Several years ago, when I saw one of your videos for the first time, I thought to myself that this Urban guy will have a difficult time in country music because he comes from Australia. It was about a year later that my wife saw one of your videos and she immediately became a fan. She said that she knew you were on your way to stardom. At the time you had just begun doing an opening act for Kenny Chesney.

My wife bought all your CD's that were available at that time; she even special ordered one CD from Australia and later ordered a CD from England to get a European version of one of your CDs. She found your website and became a citizen of Monkeyville. My wife bought tickets to the first concert, headlined on your own, in our area. The concert was held in a small venue in Santa Rosa, California that is now known as Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. When we arrived my wife saw the buses in your tour group and she became very excited thinking that she was going to get to see you in person. We parked behind the theater where we could see the buses.

I got out of the car to go over by the buses; when I asked my wife to come with me she was too shy to get so close to where you might be. I was there for a short time when you arrived on your awesome 357 Customs Tribal Chopper. I was standing next to the area where you were putting your motorcycles away in a covered trailer. My wife was watching with binoculars from our car and was beside herself with joy because she really saw Keith Urban.

We finally entered the theater where we had center seats on the front row of the balcony. My wife really enjoyed watching you perform right in front of her. In my case I was getting enjoyment seeing how your music made my wife so happy. This was only the beginning of my wife becoming a true fanatic who began following your every move via the Internet.

After the second concert I was becoming a fan of yours as well. For years my wife collected photographs of you and she bought your CD's as soon as they were in the stores. She added T-shirts, hats and a KU throw to her collection of everything Urban. My wife bought posters and photographs of you including one autographed by you.

We would travel to venues far from our home in the San Francisco Bay Area to attend your concerts. We traveled as far east as Topeka, Kansas and Little Rock, Arkansas. We saw your concerts in Reno, Nevada, Sacramento and San Jose, California almost one day after the other as well as one concert in San Luis Obispo, California where the audience stood during the whole concert. In all, from 2003 to 2007, we saw twelve of your concerts. My wife kept a record of the concerts we saw that goes as follows.

We bought tickets to concerts in Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon that we were not able to use because of health problems.

My wife was a most loyal fan talking with friends about your music and what a great performer you are. She introduced twelve people to your music all of which became concert-going fans. A couple of times my wife bought a block of tickets so she and her friends from work could all be seated together. She truly loved your music and I continued to get great joy seeing how happy your music made her.

My wife and I were high school sweethearts and had been married 42 years when we attended your concert in Santa Rosa, California. I took her to that concert as a wedding anniversary gift. We married when we were only 18 years old and as we grew older our love and devotion for each other grew very much like the lyrics in some of your songs. My wife memorized the lyrics to your songs, however, I really liked your mastery of the guitar.

We retired in 2006 with the idea we would be free to hit the road and follow your concert tour in our own motorhome. Unfortunately my wife was told she had a very rare and aggressive form of cancer only a few months after she retired. Her treatment is the reason we were not able to attend the Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon concerts.

Part of my wife's treatment involved using radiation therapy machines that were made by the company from where we retired, Varian Medical Systems. When some of my wife's co-workers heard she was going to be treated, they ran out and bought one of your CD's and had a courier run the CD over to the cancer treatment center 15 minutes before the first treatment. My wife was completely and happily surprised when the background music she heard, during her radiation treatment, was your music. She also recruited three more KU fans from the female radiation staff. When my wife completed her treatments we headed out on a trip that ultimately would take us to Little Rock where we attended another of your concerts.

My wife was very happy when she learned that you and Nicole Kidman became a couple. She was like a mother who wanted the best for a son. My wife followed you and Nicole's every move, via the Internet, as the two of you prepared to get married in Australia. My wife was extremely happy as she watched you and your bride enter the church and leave as man and wife. The next thing that gave my wife great joy was the announcement that there was going to be a new baby Urban coming into the world.

Unfortunately my wife's cancer came back and she had to begin chemo-therapy treatments. The treatments were very hard on her, but as she was receiving treatment, I had a small stereo CD player loaded with CDs of your music put in her hospital room. It gave her a lot of pleasure and helped her through the treatment cycles.

Because the cancer was so aggressive her treatment had to be aggressive from which my wife's body could not recover. She passed away shortly after the arrival of your wonderful bundle of joy in the form of Sunday Rose Urban. She was so excited for you and Nicole becoming parents. My wife was well enough to hear the good news, but from then on she drifted away. The end result was that she was not able to survive her third cycle of treatment. She passed away, in July, 2008, shortly before our 47th wedding anniversary. We had known each other for more than 50 years and became a couple 49 years ago and married two years later. When you and Nicole became a couple we both wished that you could have a marriage as wonderful as ours.

After my dear wife passed away I began to play your CDs because it made me feel closer to her. When I first listened some years ago I mostly listened to the great control you had over your guitar. However, after my wife left this world, I began paying closer attention to the lyrics. I was astounded at how some of your songs sounded as if they were written about our life and love for each other.

Better Life makes me think of how my wife and I started our lives together, while teenagers, with only one suitcase of clothing for each of us, but we were convinced that we were headed for a better life. We both loved that song.

Song after song just keeps reminding me of the wonderful life we had as in Once in a Lifetime. This song really says it all. My wife and I had a once in a lifetime love. Like the song says, we had a love that some people wait their whole life for and it never comes around. We were very blessed to find our once in a lifetime love in each other at a very young age.

Making Memories of Us — This song tells how I felt about my wife. We produced many memories of our lives together. She and I have made more memories of us than most couples. We were truly blessed to have a memorable marriage and wonderful life together. I really miss having my wife with me to be able to make more memories of us.

You Look Good in My Shirt — Most of this song doesn't fit our story, even so, it has a special meaning to me. My wife and I had been married 2 or 3 years when she surprised me one night when she came out into the living room wearing nothing but one of my dress shirts. It fit her like a long-sleeved mini-dress. You will have to take my word for it when I say that my wife sure looked good in my shirt.

The list goes on and on. You're My Better Half — I Wanna Be Your Man — Your Everything — I Could Fly — These are the Days — It's a Love Thing — But for the Grace of God — Won't Let You Down and more.
In some way they all seemed as if they were written for us.

Again, I would like to thank you for the wonderful music you write and perform. Your music has given immeasurable joy and happiness to my wife and me. Your songs, playing softly in the background, were most likely the last sounds she heard before life left her body. I was with her holding her hand and praying for a miracle that never came. We knew each other for more than 50 years and we shared 49 trips around the sun together. Your music made my wife's last days easier to endure. Now I'm left alone to listen to your music and remember the wonderful love story that is about the love and devotion my wife and I had for each other which is often expressed in your songs.

My wife would have wanted you to know that she hoped for the best for you, Nicole and your new bundle of love that now shares your lives in the form of Sunday Rose Urban. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your music.

Sincerely,

Maurice Lambert
The man who was very blessed to have a Once in a Lifetime love with Sandra Kay Lambert.