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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have been left reeling over outrageous allegations that the country singer snorted his way through $320,000 in cocaine during an epic drug binge.
Keith’s former bandmate and songwriting partner Vernon Rust has written an explosive tell-all that describes the Aussie star as ‘vindictive, infantile, selfish’ and of having ‘grandiose obsessions and drug-induced kleptomania and a tiny, childlike, coke-addled personality.’
The pair co-wrote many songs during their time with the band The Ranch in the late ’90s, in which time Vernon – who’s openly bitter about Keith – claims the star used coke, heroin, crack, methadone and weed.
He says their dependency became so bad that they spent over a quarter of a million US dollars on cocaine while recording their album The Ranch – and that Keith was unable to sing at times due to the effects of all the drugs he was using.
‘We lived in the studio,’ an angry Vernon writes in his book Fake News. ‘We did a lot of coke, and it stayed up for days… We were so reliably awesome in the music that the drugs weren’t only tolerated but encouraged.
‘I was involved on every level, and every project relating to The Ranch. I sang stunt vocals when tracking, due to [Keith’s] weak throat, aggravated by all the crack and cocaine.
‘Every track off that album was coke-fueled. Of the million [US] dollars spent on the recording of it… a fair guess would estimate at least 25 per cent of that money went to Clinton’s ‘war on drugs’ foot soldiers. Our coke dude was unbelievably reliable… much too much so.’
But while Vernon is very outspoken about poor Keith’s dark past, there’s no denying he has an axe to grind.
His book contains several long-winded rants that paint Keith in a bad light, and don’t acknowledge the amazing effort Keith has made in the last 10 years to stay sober and clean.
Keith has done two stints in rehab for his addiction issues – in 1998 and again in 2006, shortly after marrying Nicole – but has worked hard to rebuild his life and career to new heights in the past decade.
For the full story, see this week’s New Idea – Out now.
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