Somewhere on this earth, there’s an Australian folk singer waiting for an American talent show to call up and tell him he’s still got a job. That Australian folk singer is Keith Urban, but he hasn’t just been sitting by the phone, he’s been recording a new record, too.

“I have no official information of anything,” Urban explained to The Associated Press. “I’m pretty much in the same boat as everybody else here with the rumors that have been floating around. I don’t know anything more about what’s happening next season. It was like this before I signed on ... so it’s not unusual for the Idol folks to be in this place of figuring out what they want to do, then they always pull it together.” Everyone knows that when you’re sitting around, twiddling your thumbs, you put together an album. That’s just the done thing. Fuse will be released on September 10th, and features an array of collaborations; a new partnership with Jay Joyce was formed, as well as contributions from Eric Church Nathan Chapman and rocker Butch Walker.

"I'm just seeing what comes out of me working with those guys,” he told Billboard. “I love working with people who play a lot of instruments, and really, all these guys play lots of instruments and they program and play synths and they can build an entire track just on their own."

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