Keith Urban seemingly takes a subtle swipe at Nicole Kidman in new series after shock split

Keith Urban appears to have thrown some shade into his relationship amid his shock split with Nicole Kidman.

Weeks after the A-List couple confirmed they were parting ways after 19 years of marriage, Keith is starring in the new CBS series The Road, which features 12 country music hopefuls vying to be the Grammy winner’s opening act.

At the premiere of the series, which aired in the United States on Sunday, Keith took to the stage to perform his song Straight Line.

‘Why do we live in circles every day? “I’m just burning, burning,” he sings on the track.

‘I don’t want to just go through the motions. I’m turning around. It’s pulling us down.’

The choice of the song may have been a subtle reference to Keith’s current marital troubles, as he has previously explained that the track is about ‘breaking free’ from ‘soul-sucking’ routines.

Taking to Instagram in February last year, Keith shared a post introducing the track to his 2.8 million followers.

‘Straight Line wants to break free from a soul-sucking routine you can get stuck in,’ he said.

‘Maybe in a relationship, a job, creativity, yourself… whatever!! This is a message of feeling alive again and getting out from under those dark clouds.’

Elsewhere in the episode, Keith also revealed the eye-opening level of dedication it takes to be away from loved ones for long periods of time.

‘Where do we start?’ he said, revealing his thoughts on tour life.

‘This is a calling and you either do it or you don’t.

‘When you wake up on a tour bus at 3.30 in the morning and you’re sick as a dog, you’re in the middle of nowhere and you have to play your fifth show later that night, you can’t sleep, you miss your friends, you miss your family, you’re all alone and miserable and sick and you say to yourself, “Why am I doing this?”

‘The only answer can be: Because this is what I was born to do.’

The A-List couple confirmed last month that they had called it quits after 19 years of marriage.

Keith stars in CBS’ new series The Road, in which 12 country music hopefuls compete to be the opening act for the Grammys. The premiere of the series, which aired in the US on Sunday, saw Keith take to the stage and perform his own song Straight Line.

Turning his attention to the competition series, he said, ‘We will find out who is talented for this job.’

Keith’s comments come just weeks after Kidman filed for divorce on September 30 after 19 years of marriage.

The former couple had been kept apart recently amid busy filming and touring schedules.

The couple has daughters named Sunday Rose (17) and Faith Margaret (14).

The couple remarried in 2006, five years after her split from actor Tom Cruise. Kidman and Urban had a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony at the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel in her hometown of Sydney, Australia.

A day after news of the separation broke, Kidman officially filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the separation.

According to the application, the Moulin Rouge actor requested to be appointed as the primary parent.

Sources also told the Daily Mail that Urban has moved on with an unnamed female musician.

‘Straight Line wants to break free from a soul-sucking routine you can get stuck in,’ he said. ‘Maybe in a relationship, a job, creativity, yourself… whatever!! “This is the message of feeling alive again and getting out from under those dark clouds.”

Speculation had emerged that he might be linked to country star Maggie Baugh, 25, as well as singer Kelsea Ballerini, 32.

Nicole was reportedly ‘blindsided’ by the breakup.

A source said: ‘Keith never sees Nicole, she’s either filming a movie or going on tour herself.

‘There was so much love between the two of them and they may not divorce, but there’s a world in which neither of them are.

‘Keith and Nicole have been together for decades and have a world of compromises, but their current match is not a couple.’