I write about country music. Mostly.

A year ago fan Rob Joyce jumped on stage with Keith Urban. Now he’s a budding Nashville guitar player.

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Rob Joyce is the fan that landed onstage with country superstar Keith Urban and killed it on his guitar before an arena full of 8,000 fans. It was a crazy impromptu moment and within a few days, Joyce’s YouTube channel blew up (300k plus viewers to date plus way more on Urban’s channel). He was featured in dozens of media articles and country radio programs, including The Bobby Bones Show.  I was fascinated, too, and my story about the now-famous moment can be found here.

But I was curious what he’s up to a year later. I learned a couple months after the Keith Urban concert, Joyce and his girlfriend Lex moved to Nashville to allow him to pursue music.

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Lex and Rob the day they moved to Nashville.

The move from the Boston area last September was “crazy and abrupt,” Joyce said. “We knew no one here.”  But he says they’ve found Nashville “friendly and welcoming” and building contacts in the music business has been easier than he expected.  “Ninety-nine percent of the people you reach out to will sit down and have coffee and give you the time of day and some advice,” Joyce says.

So far, Joyce has scored road gigs playing guitar with country singers Cody Purvis (shown in photo at top) and Bucky Covington and he’s done several smaller acoustic sets in Nashville. “I’m just trying to get as many opportunities to play as possible,” said Joyce in a phone interview last week. “It is all about making contacts.”

Rob with his dog Murphy.

Rob and Lex have discovered some favorite spots in Music City already, including the view from the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge.  They enjoy Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint for grub and The Listening Room Cafe to hear live music. They especially like the Monday night series called Song Suffragettes featuring up-and-coming female singers and songwriters.  “The atmosphere is great, people sit back and relax to listen to the music,” Joyce said.

In case you missed the Keith Urban thing, here you go. It still fun to watch a year later.

Linked from Rob Joyce’s YouTube Channel. I claim no rights to the content.

Learn more about blogger Karen Bernick here. Please feel free to share this article or others. But please use photos with permission only – just email me with any requests. If you like this post, please consider following me here, liking my Facebook page Karen Loves Country or following me at Twitter. Thanks for reading! #Nashville #Rob Joyce #TheListeningRoomCafe #KarenLovesCountry #MomLovesHerMusic #CodyPurvis #BuckyCovington

3 Responses to “A year ago fan Rob Joyce jumped on stage with Keith Urban. Now he’s a budding Nashville guitar player.”

  1. Sandra Y Burtt

    Great story! Very exciting! Oh I wish I wish… My daughter Erika needs to do this! She is going to Keith Urban Concert this Friday July 20th at the Mountain View Ampetheatre in Mountain View Ca. She has performed quite a few KU songs in the Beat Harvest Concerts in Mariposa Ca https://beatharvest.com/

    Oh yes I’m plugging for her.

    Sandra

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