We’ve all seen our fair share of singing competition series on television. Often guided by the music industry’s most prolific heavy hitters, contestants have the opportunity to show off their talents in the hopes of getting their name out there, making it big and most of the time, leaving with a hefty prize. Now, take everything you think you know about reality singing competition series and throw it out the window—because CBS’s The Road is shaking things up. Gone are the bright lights and slick stages we’ve grown familiar with. Instead, 12 aspiring country artists will join Grammy Award-winning musician Keith Urban at shows across the country as his opening act. Playing for a crowd of people there to see Keith, it’s up to each of these hopefuls to win over the crowd and earn their vote so they can move forward to the next round—and when their time on stage at each stop is complete, the grind doesn’t stop. Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Gretchen Wilson opened up at the CBS 2025 Fall Press Day about what makes this competition a little more rough around the edges, their experiences starting out in their early careers and what their experience has been like being part of this series.
Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and Gretchen Wilson talk ‘The Road’
For some of the contestants joining this season of The Road, getting used to life on a cramped tour bus driving from city to city in the hopes of proving themselves was quite an adjustment—but it’s not an experience that’s unfamiliar to Keith Urban, Blake Shelton or Gretchen Wilson, who lead this series.
Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and Blake Shelton, The Road, 2025
Connie Chornuk/CBS
“I think the other great thing about having Blake, Gretchen and myself on board is that we’ve all been in that position of opening for somebody, walking out and facing a crowd that not only don’t know who we are, but don’t care who we are, and we’ve got to try and grab them in that minimal amount of time we get given,” said Keith. “That’s what makes this show so unique, is this is real world. This is what really happens.”
“They have to tour across the country on a bus,” explained Gretchen. “It’s kind of crowded. You get to know each other very well. Sometimes you get to know a little more about each other than you really ever wanted to.” She continued, “Remembering every little moment that we had out there with all of these musicians, the nerves and just the real world behind the scenes, I think is what sets this apart. The behind the scenes that you don’t really get to see, the real rawness of it is different from anything else that I’ve ever seen.”
Gretchen Wilson, The Road, 2025
Connie Chornuk/CBS
This trio has been down this ‘road’ before
While the not-so-glamorous moments of breaking out and selling themselves as opening artists are long gone, those memories still stand out. Blake Shelton reflected on his first gig as an opening act for a band called Lone Star, performing on what he remembers as a “three-foot stage.”
“There were a lot of nights where someone would come and say, ‘Hey, setup took longer than we thought. You have 10 minutes tonight.’ We never got a sound check, you know, that was just unheard of, but we didn’t care. It was part of the excitement of the whole experience.”
Though Keith, Gretchen and Blake might now be at different points of their careers than these competitors, their experiences shaped who they are as they took on their roles in The Road. “It’s all of those experiences that made the three of us, I think, so compassionate when it came to dealing with these contestants and these musicians,” reflected Gretchen. “It wasn’t like they were dealing with somebody who hasn’t been there and who hasn’t walked every bit of every inch of every mile in their shoes. And so while we were tough and we were like, ‘This is how it is, and you just got to lace up them boots and just get out there and make do with what you got,’ it was coming from a place of love and experience and knowing that sometimes it just doesn’t go the way you want it to go, but you still have to get out there and perform.”
Tune in to The Road on October 19.
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