Keith Urban ‘Elevated’ by His Love for Nicole Kidman

While Keith Urban is entertaining fans during the solo tour of his native homeland down under this month, he's also singing the praises of the land he now calls home, where he shares his life with wife Nicole Kidman and baby daughter, Sunday Rose.

"In Nashville, we just jump in a car and drive to wherever we want to go -- restaurants, movies. Obviously, we don't have that situation in Sydney. It changes the dynamic of being here," Keith tells Australia's The Age.

Something else that changes the dynamic for Keith is whether or not Nicole is out with him on tour.

"I think I play better. When someone you love -- and someone who loves you -- is present in what you're doing, no matter what it is, I think everything elevates a little bit."

It's no secret it was Keith's love for Nicole that elevated the songs he wrote for his current album, 'Defying Gravity,' to an extraordinary level for the singer-guitarist.

"I don't mean to sound esoteric or soft, but I think the courage to love is, for me, what it's about," he reflects. "That's really been the underlying theme in all of the songs ... even if they're presented in a seemingly simplistic pop way.

"Underneath, it's really this want to be brave enough to fully give myself to somebody ... which I've never been able to do. So that's the underlying theme."

As for Nicole, the theme in her life with Keith and Sunday Rose seems to be privacy, and the freedom to go out and enjoy life as a family -- something she says the paparazzi have made impossible for them to do anymore in Australia.

"It makes certain cities impossible to live in. Like Sydney, it makes it impossible for us to live there," the actress tells the Sunday Telegraph in London.

"We certainly don't get that treatment in Tennessee. But it goes with the territory. We have to be careful, just to maintain some sort of semblance of a normal life for our child."

In May, Nicole sold her Darling Point home in New South Wales, where she had a run-in with a photographer who was found by a judge to have placed a listening bug outside her residence. The 'Nine' actress is also looking to sell her South Coast holiday home near Batemans Bay, where she's faced further problems with paparazzi.