KEITH Urban will kick off a world tour in Australia for the first time, opening his Get Closer shows here in April.

The country music superstar flew into Sydney yesterday with wife Nicole Kidman and young daughter Sunday Rose.

The pair will be among the guests when talk show queen Oprah Winfrey films her show at the Opera House tomorrow.

They will also celebrate an early Christmas with their families before returning to the US where Kidman is on the promo trail for her latest flick, Rabbit Hole.

Urban yesterday said he would “drive Nic nuts” if he didn’t tour, writes Kathy McCabe.

“I wouldn’t miss playing for the world. The conundrum is there’s only so much time and I want to spend it everywhere, and family comes first in that time,” he said.

“If I didn’t play, there would be a time when Nic would say, ‘Can you book a gig or something?’.”

Urban’s concerts are more rock than most rock shows and he won’t be messing with that .

“I don’t think I would look so good in a harness flying over people,” he joked. “For me, the shows are about connecting with everybody. Where else can you get total strangers singing the same song at the same time?”

Critics have called Get Closer a love letter to his family, but Urban said it was not that simple.

“Nic is a huge inspiration for a lot of the songs I write, but a lot of these songs are metaphors and full of situations I may not have literally been in,” he said.

Urban will play at Rod Laver Arena on April 9.