She was the 16-year-old plucked out of the crowd and onto the stage by Keith Urban himself at his intimate concert in front of 1000 Tamworth fans on Tuesday night. But the superstar encounter didn’t end there.

It was then that the country music superstar gave her his electric guitar.

“It was incredible,” she told the Leader.

“That moment, I can’t really remember it, it’s all a bit of a blur.

“I was like, ‘oh my god, oh my god, oh my god’, I just couldn’t actually believe it was happening.”

An Urban fan, Maddy travelled from the family farm in Walgett to forget about the drought just for a night. And it was a night to remember.

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“You could tell it was sort of personal to him because of the history and what he spoke about when he was young and performing,” she said.

“It was a really good vibe, a lot smaller crowd and he seemed to have a bit of fun with the crowd.”

The concert – a fundraiser for Rural Aid – was not lost on Maddy. She herself knows more than most how crippling the drought is.

Her school holidays have been spent covered in dirt at her family’s 33,000-acre sheep and cropping property which is now a dust bowl.

“At the moment we’re struggling,” Maddy said.

“My whole holidays has been pulling sheep out of the bog. We’ve had to shoot a lot of them that won’t survive.

“It’s been really tough but I’ve learnt a lot out of it and I have a greater appreciation for everything that is happening.

“We’ve had droughts that have gone on for longer but we’ve always had a shower here or come through but this is just really dry to the bone, everything is dying.

“This is the first time my dad has had to de-stock and get rid of sheep.”

The family haven’t had a crop for a long time, and like the town, the water table is dwindling.

“We’re actually running out of water, we’ve always sort of had water,” Maddy said.

“To see the support being shown and the awareness and the community spirit, the support is a really big lift up.

“At the end of the day we really just need rain, everything is just dying.

“So to get this guitar, and that moment on [Tuesday] night, it was just amazing.”

Maddy said her boarding school classmates in Sydney are probably “clueless” to what happens this side of the Great Dividing Range, and how she’s spent her holidays, but you can bet your bottom dollar they know what she’s been up to now after the superstar encounter. 

And as for that guitar, well…

“I’m definitely going to learn to play it, I already play guitar but not electric so I might as well put it to use,” she laughed.