Keith Urban takes inspiration from U2’s “Achtung Baby”

Country music star and American Idol judge Keith Urban is taking inspiration from U2 when it comes to creating his next album. 

The Aussie singer, the only judge who survived the recent purge on Idol after the last disastrous season, is in the studio and hoping to create his very own Achtung Baby, the seminal U2 album of 1991 that propelled them to superstardom, and viewed by many fans as the band’s high water mark.

Urban’s been around for a while now, and he’s looking to prolong his success a la U2.  “I really love what U2 did with Achtung Baby,” Urban told Rolling Stone this week.

Obviously a student of serious music, Urban says he’s watched the Achtung Baby documentary From the Sky Down, It Might Get Loud over and over again.

"Bono said [Achtung Baby] had to be the sound of [U2] chopping down 'The Joshua Tree,' which I thought was great,” added Urban, referring to U2’s previously megahit.

"That's where I found myself at," he says. "I can keep making the same record, but I don't want to do that."

Meanwhile, Bono is spending part of the summer at his base in the south of France, and meeting up with other celebs while he’s there. Last week he and the missus, Ali, were spotted with pop star Gwen Stefani and her husband Gavin Rossdale wondering around the medieval town of Saint Paul de Vence.  Also part of the cool posse was supermodel Helena Christensen.