Keith Urban Hinted to Fan About Nicole Kidman Divorce Weeks Before It Came Out

One of Keith Urban's fans -- who looks a lot like the country star -- says he got the inside track on the Nicole Kidman divorce weeks before the world did ... and he got it straight from the singing horse's mouth.

Dale Whiteside tells TMZ ... he had the most bizarre interaction with Keith during a September meet-and-greet at the singer's Saskatoon, Canada stop on his "High and Alive" world tour.

Dale strongly resembles Keith, and he says the musician was blown away when they connected prior to the Sept. 15 concert, and while they chopped it up ... that's when Keith strongly hinted at the big D.

He says he was telling Keith about a moment at a music festival, when a couple mistook him for KU ... but they realized he couldn’t really be Keith, since Dale wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

Dale told Keith the ring and all the tattoos were surefire ways to tell them apart.

Anyway, they snapped a pic together and as they parted, Dale says Keith told him ... “Next time, it’ll probably be just the tattoos” that'll help people differentiate.

Dale had no clue what that was supposed to mean ... until exactly 2 weeks later, when TMZ broke news of Keith's separation from Nicole, followed by the news Nicole filed for divorce.

As we now know ... Nicole and Keith's split was something they'd been discussing privately for months before she pulled the trigger on divorce -- which likely explains why Keith was so chatty with Dale about his marital status.