New Zealand-born Keith Urban has been one of the hardest working men in Music City since moving to Nashville in 1992. Over the past 25 years, the guitar virtuoso has won just about every major award the industry has to offer, including multiple Grammy Awards, CMA Awards and ACM Awards. Just this past month, Keith took home four trophies at the CMT Music Awards.

While he’s been in Nashville for 25 years, his first trip to the U.S. was in July 1989, when the then-22-year-old was shopping around his debut demo. America’s upcoming birthday on July 4 reminded Keith about the nostalgia of his first trip to the States 28 years ago.

“1989 was the first year I came to the States, and it had always been my goal, but I had no plan on how to get here,” says Keith. “It was just a case of keep playing, keep getting better at what you do, and then hopefully, somehow, some way I’ll end up over here. The guy who was managing me at the time, we just planned a trip over here—it was actually for the New Music Seminar in New York. And we came over for that, and then we did a trip down to Nashville, and I was shopping my little demo around. I think I humored everybody more than anything else [laughs] with my tragic, ill-fitting demo for the time. So, I left there, but I was just so committed to coming back as quick as I could.”

As you know, Keith came back . . . and has been a staple of the country music scene over the last two decades.