Country music star Keith Urban will serve as the headliner for the new CBS music competition series ‘The Road’, in which up-and-coming acts serve as his opening-act on several of his tour dates. The Road is slated to air on CBS in the fall.

An official synopsis for The Road reads: “At each location, emerging musicians will take the stage as Urban’s opening acts before he performs. The audience will have the opportunity to influence which musicians will continue on the tour and move to the next city.”

The Road –– executive produced by Blake Shelton, Taylor Sheridan, David Glasser and Lee Metzger — follows Urban as he performs across Texas, Oklahoma and culminating in a show at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Tickets to those performances are free, with the audiences at those shows helping to determine who stays on tour, and who goes home.

Urban said in a statement: “I spent a lot of my underage life playing in some seedy pubs, sometimes just for the bartender. So I love the idea of throwing artists into a real-world environment to find out if they are artists. Paying your dues sucks, but there are things in this business that can’t be taught, like how to put together a set list, whether to extend or cut a song during your performance or how to work the crowd. For me, touring has always been my first love. It’s where the rubber meets the road. But it’s the only road to take if you want to be a performer.”

Urban’s High and Alive World Tour kicks off in May, after his The Road performances conclude April 2.

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com