Kasey Chambers: down-to-earth diva

The undoubted highlight of the ARIA Awards was the newest hall of famer: singer/songwriter Kasey Chambers.

Kasey Chambers is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Picture: Getty Images

At the 32nd ARIA Awards in Sydney last week the undoubted highlight of the night surrounded the newest Hall of Fame inductee: singer and songwriter Kasey Chambers, who also won best country album for her 12th studio album and most recent work, Campfire. After a wonderful performance of her 2002 hit single Not Pretty Enough that segued neatly into a powerhouse reading of 2016 track Ain’t No Little Girl, Paul Kelly stepped out from behind a keyboard to recite a remarkable poem in her honour — and then it was time for the artist to speak for herself.

“I think the two main things that I’ve learnt about the best way to survive in the music business is to always be true to yourself, and to find your tribe,” Chambers began.

“I think your real tribe will always encourage you to be true to yourself, and they won’t try and change you into something you’re not. I have had the most amazing tribe I could possibly ever imagine. My mum and dad are the two best role models that anyone could ever ask for.

“My mum is the most inspiring woman I know. My mum has basically taught me over the years that being a bitch doesn’t make you strong, and being strong doesn’t make you a bitch. To know the difference between those two things: you can be strong and kind at the same time.

“The best advice my dad ever gave me — he said to me once, ‘Just don’t be a dickhead.’ I know it doesn’t sound very profound, but it actually has been the best advice to follow. Seriously: you don’t need to be a dickhead to get ahead in this business. He’s right. Honestly, you don’t have to drag other people down in order to get to the top. You don’t have to treat people like shit. Don’t even worry about what everyone else is doing; just do your own thing, and try not to be a dickhead about it.”

Chambers thanked her long-time manager and “voice of reason”, Melita Hodge, then found her big brother, Nash, in the crowd.

“You pick me up whenever I fall down,” she told him. “You drag me back down when I get my head too far in the clouds. But you always, always walk beside me. You always have. I love you with all my heart, and it really is as much yours, this Hall of Fame, as it is mine. So thank you.”

The songwriter looked down at her “three greatest creations” — her children Talon, Arlo and Poet — and said: “Not only do you guys put up with our crazy life that I’ve given you, but you also really embrace it, and you enhance it. God knows you challenge it sometimes — but I’m so proud to be your mum, I really am. I hope that at the end of the day I have inspired you three to find something in your life that just makes you feel alive, and work really hard, and always be true to yourself. In the words of my greatest musical influence: just don’t be a dickhead.”

The newest ARIA Hall of Fame inductee concluded with this: “I never thought I would ever be standing up here, getting something like this. I started out as a little girl singing country songs around a campfire on the Nullarbor Plain. I am so proud to have become a strong woman in the music industry. But I don’t think I’m standing up here because I’m a strong woman; I don’t think I’m standing up here in spite of being a strong woman, either. I actually just think that I’m standing up here because I’m just myself, and I think that that’s all that any of us ever really need to be.”

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