ARIAs flasher Kirin J. Callinan breaks silence after being charged with obscene exposure

IN HIS first TV interview since pleading guilty to obscene exposure, Kirin J. Callinan has opened up about that ARIAs flashing incident.

KIRIN J. Callinan has broken his silence for the first time after being charged over a flashing incident at the ARIAs last year.

The Australian musician received heavy backlash after raising his kilt and exposing his penis on the red carpet. Last week, he plead guilty to a charge of wilful and obscene exposure, which was dropped on the condition of a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Callinan infamous ARIAs flash. Picture: Splash News

Appearing on The Project on Wednesday night, Callinan described the fallout from the incident as “heartbreaking”.

“Of course I regret it. It was very silly, a very silly spontaneous thing,” he told the hosts.

“It hadn’t been much of a moment [at the time] to be honest — a few photographers saw it and it got some laughs and we kept on going and did more interviews ... Then we went into the ARIAs and it was good fun and it wasn’t until the next morning that it all kind of blew up.”

While he was apologetic, Callinan — who’d had “a couple of champagnes beforehand” — also insisted it had been blown out of proportion.

“It was a private media area, and there’s a bigger conversation to be had about truth in media because the way it escalated ... All of a sudden, it was in front of children, and it happened for several moments, and multiple times.”

In January, Callinan was dumped from the line-up of Laneway Festival as a result of the stunt.

At the time, it was confirmed by hip hop artist Miss Blanks that she had protested his inclusion at the event because of a “long and recent history of reckless and insensitive actions”.

Miss Blanks herself then copped backlash, prompting Callinan to stick up for her.

“I wasn’t very happy that another artist had a go at me ... But I didn’t like that then she was getting attacked for having an opinion, even if the opinion was misguided or had some of the facts wrong ... It all got a bit messy,” he said.

It started with a raised kilt and ended with cancelled performances, police charges and court. We speak to singer @KirinJCallinan about regrets, reactions and defending other artist's opinions. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/eYhKeMG0AC

— The Project (@theprojecttv) February 28, 2018

Originally published as ARIAs flasher Kirin J. Callinan breaks silence after being charged with obscene exposure