Kasey Chambers shares words to live by in her revealing Just Don’t Be A Dickhead book

From her adventurous childhood on the Nullarbor plain to fighting against music industry sexism, Kasey Chambers shares her biggest Aussie life lessons in her new book. See the video.

In all of the meetings with all of the people about her new book, Kasey Chambers kept the profound yet simple piece of wisdom from her father Bill in the front of her mind.

After all, it was the title of her book. And she really didn’t want to be a dickhead.

“Do you know what’s ironic is I had so many meetings with so many people about changing the name of the book,” she says laughing.

“I get it, I know it makes it harder to sell a book called Just Don’t Be A Dickhead, but if I changed that, I would be going against everything I’ve said in the book.”

In a classic Kasey moment, she first shared this quintessentially Aussie maxim to huge cheers, laughter and applause during her speech when she was inducted the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2018.

Kasey Chambers releases her new book and album Backbone this week. Picture: Chloe Isaac.

It has guided her throughout her three decades as a recording artist and performer. She has instilled this principle in her children, sons Talon and Arlo and daughter Poet.

And it is the overarching theme of her book, subtitled “ … and other profound things I’ve learnt” which shares the experiences which have shaped her from her unique and colourful childhood on the Nullabor plain to navigating the music business and busting society’s dangerous beauty myths.

The girl who grew up in the outback with her wild pet rabbit Jackson, named after Jackson Browne. Picture: Kasey Chambers / Supplied.

Her new record Backbone is the soundtrack to the book, with Chambers directing fans to the matching songs with each chapter.

As she reveals throughout her stories, the book title wasn’t the first time the world had attempted to bend Chambers to its will.

When she signed her solo record deal after six years touring the country with the Dead Ringer family band – which featured dad Bill, mum Diane and brother Nash – Chambers informed her label she would be calling her debut album The Captain.

When someone suggested it would only be a working title and other options should be considered, Chambers spoke up.

Kasey with her first proper guitar. Picture: Kasey Chambers / Supplied.

“It’s called The Captain, guys. It’s the song that holds the whole album together. The moment I wrote that song, I knew that’s what my first-ever album would be called. Sorry, but

that is the name,” she told the label executives around the table.

Chambers’ gut instinct, nicknamed her “inner foghorn” in the book, has served her well all these years.

It seems unthinkable that anyone who has ever heard her No. 1 hit Not Pretty Enough, released back in 2001, would even try to change her. It was a song born out of the frustrations she faced in the music industry because she didn’t look or sound like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera or the Spice Girls, the prevailing pop stars of the time.

Yet, as she tells in the book, a woman tapped her wrinkly forehead as she sat in the make-up chair ahead of the Golden Guitar awards in Tamworth several years ago and suggested “You could definitely do with some Botox, love.”

Chambers, who battled an eating disorder when she was 30 as she became overwhelmed by the pressures of fame and societal expectations, was not having it.

“I make that out to be a bit of joke in the book but f …, I remember that moment like someone was sticking a needle in my eye … it made my toes curl,” she says.

“This is what’s wrong with the world. I didn’t even have as many wrinkles as I do now but looking back now, I thank that woman for that moment because I was sitting there feeling like that for all women, to not be okay with that.

“I was thinking ‘No, I’m not going to buy into that.’ I was brought up by a woman who wasn’t defined by her looks, I wrote a song for her about that (called Mother) with the line ‘Light a room with the lines on your face.’ I see beauty in my lines.”

Chambers shares her “inner foghorn” keeps her authentic in her new book. Picture: Chloe Isaac

Australia has become well acquainted with Chambers via her art over the past three decades but will be dazzled by the stories she shares in the book of her nomadic childhood.

The family spent six months a year travelling through the outback as her father made his living as a fox and rabbit hunter.

The book opens with the jaw-dropping tale of one night when Bill, his wife and young son were chased by a gun-toting farm owner after firing his own rifle too close to the homestead.

As dad put the jeep into top speed, careening on a gravel road, Diane, who was weeks away from giving birth to Kasey, was leaning out the back door siphoning petrol into the tank to keep the vehicle going.

Chambers takes her children Arlo (pictured), Talon and Poet with partner Brando on camping adventures now. Picture: Kasey Chambers / Supplied.

“I had to check the shooting story out with Dad because it was going into the book and obviously I wasn’t there, and he was like ‘No, it was heaps more exciting than that!’ He reckons I toned it down a bit,” she says, laughing.

“What sort of crazy life did you have? My mum, eight and a half months pregnant and hanging out the back of this jeep siphoning petrol. What the hell? It’s definitely a short film.”

Towards the end of the book, whose core message is to remain true to yourself, Chambers provides a handy “My definition of ‘being a dickhead’ list which should probably be printed out and posted on every fridge in the country.

Chambers with her road family which includes dad Bill and Brando (right). Picture: Kasey Chambers / Supplied.

There’s the obvious occasions she feels put her in that territory, such as ignoring that inner foghorn, living with regret, putting herself down, judging others and thinking that being strong means behaving like an “arsehole.’”

But the final one reveals Chambers as her most authentic self.

“When I get my eyebrow pierced in a dodgy backyard piercing place in western New South Wales and leave it in – even when it goes all red and pus starts coming out of it – and end up in a Dubbo hospital. Note to self: just don’t be a dickhead.’”

Just Don’t Be A Dickhead by Kasey Chambers (HardieGrant) is out on October 1. Her 13th album Backbone is out on October 4. For all In Conversation With book events and tour dates, kaseychambers.com

Originally published as Kasey Chambers shares words to live by in her revealing Just Don’t Be A Dickhead book