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Just a few days after country star Keith Urban revealed that his father, Robert Urban, had been placed in hospice care, the singer announced that his father had died on Saturday night.

“I’ve been deeply touched by the outpouring of love and support that [Nicole Kidman] and I, and our family, have received since my Dad s passing on Saturday night,” the 48-year-old singer said in a statement to PEOPLE. “His long battle with cancer is now over and he is finally at peace. My dad’s love of country music and America set me on my life’s journey, and shaped so much of who I am today.

“Thank you to everyone who has kept us all in your thoughts and prayers,” he added.

On Wednesday, while touring his new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Urban revealed that his father had entered a hospice.

“He’s probably only got a few weeks, if that,” Urban said at the time. “I’ve just been dealing with that the last couple of days. This has all come at a very strange time where it’s typical of a career that has extreme highs and extreme lows all often at the exact same time. So [the exhibit] is bittersweet a little bit because [my dad] is the catalyst for all of this. My dad is the catalyst for me living in America.”

The Australian-born singer also shared a story about his father buying a Don Williams album without even knowing any of the songs on the record just because he knew it would be good.

“I hit me in such a way that I thought, ‘Oh, I’d love to make records where people know it’s going to be solid and they go out and get it.’ So I want to thank them for starting me on this journey,” Urban said.

• Reporting by MARY MARGARET

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