If you were married to actress Nicole Kidman, you might write happy songs, too. But life is more complex than that for country superstar Keith Urban -- 2006's "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing" came out around the time he entered rehab for alcoholism, while the new "Defying Gravity" is noticeably lighter in tone, filled with porch-swing kisses and thanking God.
 
Urban, 41, compared the albums' moods from a London, Ontario, tour stop.
 
Q. Stories about you lately tend to take the tone of "the last album was plagued with dark things, like rehab and recovery, while this one is full of happiness, given your marriage and the arrival of your daughter." Is it really that black and white?
 
A. It's easy to sort of label the record slightly darker than this one, or for this one to be a little lighter. It's a little more positive in its energy, perhaps. "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing" captured an energy that I wasn't aware of. And this one captured an energy that I was really glad to see.
 
Q. You and Nicole are both artists. Do you help each other?
 
A. The way she approaches life I find just beautifully inspiring, and that in turn has inspired my art. ... I write at home, and oftentimes she's there. This record, "Defying Gravity" -- she knows a lot of these songs from the very first inception, just in terms of guitar riffs. I love that she's a part of that journey.
 
Q. One of your first jobs in the music business was musical director for an Australian cabaret singer. What was the oddest thing that happened during that gig?
 
A. The whole thing was pretty odd. I mean, I was 16, with hair down past my shoulders, and I had to perform in a tuxedo. We'd play a song -- "The Twelfth of Never" -- in some ways it's a bit like learning algebra or something: "When am I ever going to need this later in life?" Some years later, I was in the studio with Dolly Parton, doing, of all things, "The Twelfth of Never." She said, "You probably won't know this song." But I said, "Strangely enough, I do!"
 
Q. You first moved from Australia to Nashville in 1992. How intense was the culture shock?
 
A. I loved Nashville from the moment I got there. The first trip I made was in 1989, and it was your cliched classic trip. I came over with the manager that I had at the time, we stayed four days and I shopped my little demo tape to all the record labels that would give us a listen. Consequently, we were rejected by everybody. ... I remember thinking, "Yeah, I could absolutely live here, I could really put in the time required to establish myself in this town." I didn't find it too much of a culture shock. In Australia, we grew up with so much American television and so many shows and movies and so many cultural influences. I felt like I'd grown up (on that) most of my life anyway.
 
Q. You're a prolific songwriter, but you almost always write with a partner. Why?
 
A. I feel like I'm a specific kind of lyric writer, but, musically, I have different stories to tell, that I (only) sometimes articulate with lyrics. I often work with other people (so) we can tell a story with the music. It's a bit of trial and error. The early years in Nashville, I was writing a lot on Music Row, doing wretched 9 a.m. sessions with perfect strangers, which is just a bizarre style of writing. I hated it at the time, but I felt like "I've gotta do it." There would be some nights I'd be driving around crying in my rental car. I just hated writing that way. But I learned so much -- sometimes you learn a lot from what you don't want to do. I can't just get up at 10:00 (to write). I've got to be more inspired.
 
Q. One of your inspirations as a guitar player was Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. Why him?
 
A. When I was 15, a guy who played guitar in a little band in Brisbane, where I grew up, was in love with Dire Straits. He had this Stratocaster -- it just sounded so great, and I said, "Where do you get your sound from?" He said, "I'm fully inspired by Mark Knopfler." Just the beautiful tone and the melodic creativity, it's sublime.
 
Q. Have you ever met him?
 
A. It was more of a strange fan sighting one night -- one of my early years in Nashville. He was sitting at a table in a restaurant. I was just sort of awestruck. The only really "fannish" moment I've ever had was seeing him at the table. I waited till the end and introduced myself and he was just really cordial. I would love to meet him proper some day.
 
Q. Are you working on the next record?
 
A. Always. (Laughs) I've heard a few songs that have been written by other people that are unrecorded and I'm thinking about those. Sometimes it takes that, too -- I hear other songs I love, they inspire me. I don't know when I'm gonna be in the studio, probably not till early next year. At the same time, we've got hopefully another couple singles on this album.