There are 12 country music musicians performing to compete as opening acts for Keith Urban in a variety of venues all around America. Urban, Blake Shelton, and Gretchen Wilson mentor the musicians as they travel across the country vying for the $250,000 prize and a record deal. Life on the road is not glamorous, but they all have their eyes on the prize.

Shelton and Urban recently spoke with select members of the media about this new competition show.

Shelton admitted when he was first approached with the concept of musicians competing while opening for a superstar, he said, “There’s no freaking way any superstar will ever allow that.” Then things became more real and he said, “We found a superstar that knows how to play ball and in a scenario like this, … Keith Urban, I really don’t know who else could have done something like this.”

Shelton went on to admit, “And so, really, I don’t know that this could have happened if we couldn’t have got Keith involved.”

Keith Urban stated, “It’s great to be part of this family, first of all, and part of this show. One of the great things that happened across this season is that we also got to have guest mentors come on board at various places.”

The competing musicians are tasked with selecting their songs, a cover and an original, and then they must connect with the audience while performing. Opening for Keith Urban is a daunting task on top of everything. Then the audience has to vote to keep them in the competition. That is a stressful task for the competitors with all they are required to do to stay involved in the competition.

Keith Urban fans often stand outside for hours to get into a concert. As Shelton acknowledged about the “opening acts” he mentors, it is a difficult situation because the audiences have been “waiting to see Keith Urban, and they’re having to watch these people they’ve never heard of before, you know? How would these artists that I’m coaching react in that situation?” And how does the paying audience react to having to sit through an unknown opening act?

When asked about their own experiences as opening acts, Shelton answered, “Well, the first artist that I actually got an opening gig on a tour was a band called Lone Star. And I was opening for an artist named Jamie O’Neill, who was opening for Lone Star.” It is difficult now to imaging Blake Shelton being the opening act for an opening act. He later opened for Toby Keith, as an opening act.

As far as learning along the way, Urban explained the he was in a band in his youth and learned a lot about the business of performing from the lead singer. “It was his band, and I learned an enormous amount from him about the very things that they’re figuring out on the road how to do, how to engage with an audience, how to handle hecklers, how to handle PAs not working, how to handle everything, in a real-world situation, I learned an enormous amount from him.” Those are the kinds of things the competitors on the show will hopefully learn.

When they were asked about daily life with cameras following every detail, Urban simply said, “To me, everything’s being filmed these days. I think it’s safe to say I don’t even know there [are] cameras around anymore, because they’ve become so commonplace everywhere, in every situation. I’m not even really aware of them the way I used to be.” To that, Blake Shelton exclaimed, “I think cameras ruined the good old-fashioned fun. Don’t you think?”

Cameras aside, the show is an interesting look at the life of an entertainer on the road, with all the ups and downs and the nitty gritty details.

“I’m really honored to be a part of the group, part of the family, this road family. I especially love being a part of something that’s so incredibly unique,” Keith Urban said with humility.

“The Road” premiered October 19, 2025 on CBS. It is available to stream on Paramount+.