Kirin J Callinan has spoken out about the infamous ARIAs flashing incident which left the divisive musician facing up to six months in jail.

Following the November incident, Callinan saw himself receive widespread public backlash for the incident, including being taken off the 2018 Laneway Festival lineup, on which he had only appeared one day before the incident took place.

Last month it was revealed that Callinan had been formally charged with wilful and obscene exposure in a public place over the incident, and faced a fine of $1,100, or a six-month prison sentence. However, only a matter of days ago, it was announced that Callinan had fronted up to court, and escaped with only a good behaviour bond.

Now, in an interview with The Project on Wednesday night, Kirin J Callinan has broken his silence in regards to the incident.

“Of course I regret it,” said Callinan with a sense of defeat. “It was very silly – very silly, spontaneous thing that happened.”

“It’s a bit heartbreaking, actually,” he admitted.

When prompted by host Waleed Aly to respond to rumours that he was goaded into the incident by nearby photographers, Callinan attempted to set the record straight. “It was, y’know, a couple of champagnes in, on the red carpet, and it was a private media area.”

“I think there is a bigger conversation to be had about truth in media, because the way it escalated in, y’know, some online blogs and other more established outlets, all of a sudden it was ‘in front of children’, or ‘it happened for several moments’, or ‘multiple times’.”

“The photographers, knowing that nakedness is a part of my work, y’know I was nominated for Video of the Year with a video that features some nudity, said ‘Kirin, show us what’s under kilt’, and y’know… I’m an idiot, to be honest.”

Kirin J Callinan also outlined his feelings in regards to having been taken off the Laneway Festival lineup following concerns raised by fellow Lanway artist Miss Blanks, who Callinan defended following numerous commentators attacking her decision to criticise him.

“I had no problem with certain sections of the media getting outraged, it was sections of my own community turning on me,” he explained.

“I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t very happy that another artist had a go at me and went on the radio to do so.”

“But by the same token, she’s quite young and she’s got an opinion and that’s cool. 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 and even if the opinion was misguided or had some of the facts wrong, that wasn’t what was important.”

Check out Kirin J Callinan’s interview on The Project:

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