Nothing but blue skies for Pete Murray

Murray, the acoustic superstar who has sold a million albums, has spent the past four years in Byron Bay writing songs, surfing the far north coast and avoiding his own fame, all while dealing with the heartbreak of splitting from his wife Amanda in 2009.

The turmoil has reshaped Murray's priorities: His main goal now is to be a devoted dad for Pedro, four, and seven-year-old Charlie.

"My main thing in life is having my boys a lot, just being a dad," Murray tells Insider in his first interview since deciding to return to the spotlight. "When I've got them, it's full-time. Nothing gets in the way, no work, no one else, just myself and the boys."

Murray's new album, Blue Sky Blue, was recorded at the famed Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles with former Beck producer Tom Rothrock, and is to be launched in September.

The inevitable touring and publicity commitments will be shaped around his time with the boys, says Murray, whose own father died of a heart attack at just 47.

"I think I was only just starting to get to know him at that age," Murray, now 41, says. "When I was younger, we didn't have a real close relationship.

"(We) still got on well, but we didn't have that close bond. As I became 17, 18, that's when I started to get to know him - and then he was taken. That was a really hard thing to live with for me.

"And I didn't want that to happen for my boys. I wanted them to be really close to me and feel they could tell me anything they wanted to in the future, talk about girls or whatever they're going through, be really close and have that bond," he says.

In 2009 Murray split with Amanda Coutts after three years of marriage.

However, the pair are still close friends, Murray says, and he is determined to let the children know their family is still bonded by love.

"Just like for anyone else who's been through what I've been through, a relationship breakdown, it's not easy. It's hard.

"But you know, we're great mates. The kids come first, and that's the best way to be. There'd be nothing worse than being in a relationship and having your kids growing up with two parents fighting," he says.

Coutts and Murray share custody, take the boys for regular meals together in Byron Bay, and talk constantly.

"I don't understand people who split and use the kids as pawns," he says.

"That's so selfish. You just can't put yourself first, because kids want to see both mum and dad ... that's the most important thing (for them). They know mum and dad love each other.

How Does This Parent-Thing Work??

With a baby on the way, I feel really unequipped to handle any kind of “bible stuff” in regards to my child. *I* don’t know what *I* believe, how am I supposed to pass it on?

The other thing is, I keep thinking that I don’t want to do what my dad did and just indoctrinate my children that This Is The Way, and when they get older, they won’t know WHY they believe This Is The Way. I don’t want to make up their minds for them, I want them to…but at the same time, is that what I’m supposed to do?