NICOLE Kidman will be at the side of her troubled husband Keith Urban when he launches a spectacular comeback tour in Australia this year.

Grammy winner Urban, 39, is planning a return to the spotlight and will start a world tour in April or May.

The country music star is being treated for alcoholism.

Industry sources say Kidman, acknowledged as a rock of support during Urban’s battle, will accompany her husband on his tour.

They say Urban used a recent holiday in Sydney to firm up the concert tour details, which will be locked in in the next few weeks.

Urban reckons the stage is the perfect place from which to answer the sensationalist frenzy that follows him.

“That is the biggest punch I can throw, the only way I can fight because I want to be there,” Urban said. “To get up there and do the best I can.”

Urban is desperate to road-test his new album Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing.

The week his most personal record was released, Urban checked into a rehabilitation clinic. He has yet to perform the album live.

Kidman’s new role as her husband’s tour support follows a spate of glamour-couple visits.

And Urban stated two years ago that he needed strong support. He revealed then that he was easily tempted.

“It’s bloody hard on tour not drinking,” Urban said at the time.

“I found myself going offstage, getting to my tour bus, not hanging with anybody and feeling like . . . not a recluse, but a stuck-up rock star.

“I’d be sitting on the bus twiddling my thumbs. It’s not an easy environment to not drink.

“What I have discovered is if I avoid liquor, I’m fine.”

Urban has battled cocaine and alcohol addictions in the past.

Last week, he returned to a Palm Springs, California, rehabilitation clinic for what was said to be his last treatment stage.