Kirin J Callinan has gone on The Project to publicly address his controversial penis-flashing incident on the ARIA Awards red carpet.
Gracing the talk show’s panel on Wednesday night, the singer-songwriter admitted he regrets his decision to flash his family jewels at the award show.
“Of course I regret it,” Callinan said. “It was a very silly, spontaneous thing that happened.
“You should have seen the text messages I got from my father,” he added, to audible giggles from the studio audience.
“It hadn’t been much of a moment, to be honest,” he said.
“You know, a few photographers saw it, there were some laughs, we kept on going, did more interviews, went into the ARIA’s…. It was what it was — good fun. It wasn’t til the next morning that it all kind of blew up.”
The panel continued to discuss exactly what went down on the night, recapping that Callinan — who admitted to being “a couple of champagnes in” — reactively lifted up his kilt in response to one snapper yelling, “Show us what’s under there!”
Nakedness is also a big part of Callinan’s work, and his ARIA-nominated video for ‘S.A.D.’ also featured nudity.
“I think there’s a bigger conversation to be had about truth in media,” Callinan said, claiming some details of the incident were blown out of proportion in the press.
The songwriter called the whole thing “heartbreaking”, saying the “hardest part” to deal with was the backlash from members of the music community and queer community.
ICYMI: Callinan was booted from the Laneway Festival lineup after fellow Laneway artist Miss Blanks complained about him, and then spoke out against him on national radio.
Despite the fact, Callinan still defended her after she was attacked on social media.
“Not everyone has to like me, there’s no issue there. I didn’t like that then she was getting attacked for having an opinion,” he told The Project. “Even if the opinion was misguided or had some of the facts wrong.”
Callinan was recently cleared of all charges after pleading guilty to the flashing incident, and was handed a 12-month good behaviour bond.
Watch his The Project interview, below.
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
