Country artist Keith Urban and actress Nicole Kidman suffered a devastating loss when Nicole's father, Dr. Antony Kidman, passed away suddenly in September. 

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Urban maintains that he's been trying to keep life in perspective during this hard months and sobriety is one thing that has been key in doing that.

"The loss of Nic's dad was just a huge, huge loss," said Urban to CMT on Friday. 

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While Nicole has spoken a number of times about the loss of her father and the importance of family since September, this was Urban's first time publicly speaking on the matter in any depth. Still a painful subject, the singer chose his words carefully as he discussed a man who had meant a great deal to him.

"I can't even describe what that moment was like for our family," he admitted. "I was very, very close to Nic's dad. It's very fresh. It's very recent."

Sober for eight years now, Urban's history of substance abuse could have put his will to the test this year in the face of tragedy. Instead, that painful past only made him stronger.

"Look, eight years of sobriety, as well, has had an impact on the way I feel in the world that I didn't used to," he explained. "That's had an incredible effect on my life, as well. It's all just very fleeting. You lose a family member, and you're reminded of the brevity of life and the fragility of it and how it can go very, very quickly."

For Urban, the death of someone so close to him has made him more aware of the world around him. "I don't want to miss any of it," he noted. "None of it. I don't want to miss any time with Nic or our family. I don't want to feel like I missed any musical things, songs I could've written and all that sort of stuff."

Nicole and Urban returned to Australia to be with the Kidman family back in September. Since then, however, they've come back to their Nashville home where they live with their two young daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

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