Keith Urban Reveals the 'Unusual Place' He First Heard Demos for Taylor Swift's New Fearless Songs

When Taylor Swift texts, Keith Urban listens!

The country star, 53, appears on Thursday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he shares how he came to collaborating with Swift, 31, on her newly released re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor's Version). Urban lends his vocals to two never-before-released tracks, "That's When" and "We Were Happy."

Chatting with host Ellen DeGeneres, the singer reveals that he first listened to the songs in a mall food court.

"It's the craziest story," Urban explains. "We were in Australia, I was doing some Christmas shopping at the shopping mall in December — because everybody does their shopping right before Christmas, every guy does. ... I get a text from Taylor saying, 'I've got these couple of songs I'd like you to sing on, do you wanna hear them?' I said sure, so she sends me the songs and I'm sitting in the food court at the shopping center listening to these two unreleased Taylor Swift songs [with headphones]."

"It was an unusual place to be hearing unreleased Taylor Swift music," he admits. "But I loved the songs, and luckily got to put a vocal on both of those."

DeGeneres then jokes that it's "hilarious" to picture the country star seated in a mall food court, let alone jamming to top-secret Swift tunes. "I was hungry!" Urban says with a laugh. "Where are you gonna go when you're hungry, Ellen?"

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Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

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The singer — who shares daughters Sunday, 12, and Faith, 10, with wife Nicole Kidman — goes on to say that his kids were impressed by his connection to the music superstar. "[They are] big Taylor Swift fans, yes," he adds. "They were just excited that Dad got a text from Taylor Swift."

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Ahead of the album's release this month, Swift spoke out on Instagram about her excitement in Urban joining her for it.

"I'm really honored that @keithurban is a part of this project, duetting on That's When and singing harmonies on We Were Happy," said Swift, who opened for the country star during his Escape Together World Tour in 2009, the year after she dropped the original Fearless.

"I was his opening act during the Fearless album era and his music has inspired me endlessly," she added.