Country megastar Keith Urban is racking up some major frequent-flier miles these days. He's currently in the middle of the American-leg of his Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy World tour, but he's still flying halfway around the world twice a month.

It's all part of a shift in the newly wed and newly sober singer's life, as he juggles touring with spending time with his wife of one year, actress Nicole Kidman, who is filming a movie in Australia.

Urban took a very early morning wakeup call with AOL Music this week from Darwin, Australia, where he's visiting his bride. Read on as he talks about touring, the paparazzi, his recent stint in rehab and why his main goal in life has nothing to do with music. Plus, we surprise Urban with a rumor about him he's never heard before... but gets quite a laugh out of.

You're in the middle of your Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy World tour, so let's begin by talking about your live shows. How would you say they have evolved over the past decade?

That's a good question. They've certainly gotten bigger. It's not all cerebral what we do, it's just sorta organic evolving so I don't quite know how to quantify that. It's seems to get a little freer every year.

Your fan base has certainly evolved and grown tremendously. You've recently attracted a lot of non-country fans. Why do you think that is?

I think that's happening with a lot of country artists these days. Certainly for me, it's more about the songs. They should defy genre ... like 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.' It's a song that everybody loves to sing. And I think country music has a lot of that type of song, as well, that defy genre.

What would you say is one of your songs that gets the best response from your live audiences?

'You'll Think of Me' is really high on the list, because there are a lot of jilted people out there. (laughs)

You've made a real conscious effort to incorporate breaks into your tour, in order to balance work with your personal life. Being the workhorse that you are, was that hard to do?

No, it's come quite easily. Balance is about adjustments, so occasionally it tips to far and you have to adjust it. But that's life. Right now, I have an enormous amount of gratitude for where I am in life. And I still have a lot of passion and hunger for creating more music and touring. But it seems to be more focused. In the past it was more running from things, because I didn't really have a life outside music ... Getting on the bus and touring was my life. And when that was not around, I felt myself a bit lost at times, because that was all I had. And my life is now much more balanced, which is wonderful.

With your tour and Nicole's movie shooting in Australia, how often do you get to see one another?

This year was odd because she already had the film scheduled to shoot in for six months, which is quite long for a film. And I had a tour already planned. So she's on the other side of the world, and I'm on the other side of the world touring. So how do we make that work? Well, we just said about 11 days is the longest I feel that I can be away. I prefer it to be about 5, but I just couldn't go to the states for 3 days ...come back and go and all that. So we just figured out that we could probably get through about 11-12 days of being apart. So that's what I do. I tour for a little less than two weeks and then I come back to, and I'm here for a week or two weeks and then I go back.

You just celebrated two big occasions: Nicole's 40th birthday and your first anniversary. Did you do anything special to celebrate?

We had a beautiful anniversary. It was very intimate. I don't really need to elaborate ... (laughs) ... but it was lovely.

Ok, we won't make you go into detail! So you've said that your recent stay in rehab strengthened your marriage. How so?

It's hard to put into words that might get misconstrued or taken out of context. It's just made it stronger, that's all I know. And I'm very very grateful for it. We're both grateful for it, and it's brought us very close together.

There have, of course, been a lot of untruths written about you and Nicole in the tabloids. But you've never pulled a Britney Spears move on the paparazzi. What's your take on celebrities like Britney and Posh Spice who fight back at the media?

I think everybody has different priorities in their life. People live their lives differently. People become famous through all sorts of different reasons ... some of it through art and some of it through just wanting to be famous. And I think how that all starts tends to reflect how you live your life daily. I can't speak for other people, I just know that we love our privacy. We value it. We love to be as normal as we can be and just be a husband and wife. Because at the end of the day, that's what we are. We're each other's husband and wife, and we're each other's best friends. And we both have jobs and careers, but that's not who we are. It's not our identity.

And is that easier to do in Nashville than in Hollywood?

It is. The world is getting so reality-driven these days. It seems to be accelerating exponentially. But it's a dangerous game for a lot of people. The paparazzi do what they do because that's what they're paid to do. We just try and value our privacy, but there are certain situations where you're going to get photographed ... that's all there is to it. And we both accept that. But when it starts to move into stalking and unnecessary invasiveness, that's when anybody with any dignity gets a little disturbed by that type of behavior.