Kasey Chambers on new book Just Don't Be A D***head and accompanying album Backbone

Despite her unimpeachable success, Kasey Chambers would be the first to admit she hasn't always got it right.

In her candid new book — Just Don't Be A Dickhead And Other Profound Things I've Learnt — the 24-time Golden Guitar winner reflects on her career, from a child living in the desert to esteemed Australian music royalty.

"I'm trying to be a decent human as much as I can be. And I guess we all learn so much from our mistakes, and I've gotten to a point in my life where I'm now trying to sort of embrace those mistakes and be grateful for them because they've taught me so many things," she tells Double J's Caz Tran.

"Only if you put it into practice," she punctuates with a raspy chuckle. "I'm just sort of trying to show up as best that I can. Most days. Sometimes though, you know, you give up a little bit."

As fellow country music icon Keith Urban notes in his foreword, "Sometimes, it's the most simple truisms that light the way for us."

Characteristic of her chart-topping music, the writing is honest and heartfelt, but also conversational and surprising. Stripped of the buffers of songwriting — a band, production, lyrics — Chambers offers a warts-and-all portrait that hides nothing.

"It was sometimes excruciating, if I'm honest. There are chapters in there that are really hard to talk about."

In fact, she was "about two-thirds, maybe three-quarters" through writing when she seriously considered shelving the project entirely.

After going through "some sleepless nights" and severe self-doubt, feeling "quite exposed even just in the way I write", she corrected course by likening the experience to the vulnerability of putting yourself out there with songwriting.

"It's the same thing. Not everyone's going to like it. You're gonna put out albums that nobody likes … but that's not why I do it. I don't do it to get praise back."

After overcoming that crisis of confidence, the result isn't so much a memoir as a "list of these little lessons … that I'm trying to live by each day", says the ARIA Hall of Famer.

The book is accompanied by a new release, Backbone, Chambers's 13th album, and among her very best.

"[Writing the book] sparked a lot of new songs [and] the other way around. When I was writing new songs, it ended up sparking more stories for my book. They went hand in hand, that's why I wanted to release them together."

Self-producing for the first time, Chambers assembled a crack studio band — including legendary session drummer Brady Blade and Sam Teskey from The Teskey Brothers — and recorded live at her studio, The Rabbit Hole.

The result gives the record a homespun, organic quality that simply can't be fake, like the band fudging the intro to The Divorce Song, a witty duet with ex-husband Shane Nicholson.

"We said 'till death do us part', but death didn't come quick enough," the pair harmonised together, tongues firmly planted in cheeks.

"We made such a great sound together and, honestly, I thought those days were over," Chambers says. "We got divorced, and as much as we ended up friends and all that, I really thought maybe our creative connection was gone.

The title track refers to Chambers's childhood, a large part of it spent travelling around the Nullarbor Plain, raised by her fox-hunting father, Bill — who'd cook meals on the open fire — and homeschooled along with her older brother, Nash, by their mother, Diane.

"That's where music became such a big part of my life," Chambers says. "Long before there was ever an audience to play to, it was really just with my family, and we would sit around and play around the campfire.

"I think of this like the backbone of my life, my career, even though now I'm very grateful I get to play to audiences all over Australia … still one of my most favourite things is to sit around a campfire and play music. And now I get to do it with my kids."

Reflections on parenting

Highlights from both the book and the new album are inspired by two of the Chambers's children.

The poignant Arlo was penned in honour of her second son on his 13th birthday.

"He's the middle child, and he misses out on everything. So, it's really beautiful that people are connecting to this song so much," she says. "He's just started playing guitar [and] his own band … called Motion Sickness, and they play lots of 90s punk-rock kind of songs."

Another touching moment involves her young daughter, Poet.

A few years ago, Chambers wanted to simplify her touring lifestyle, trading in the hustle of planes and airports for "a four-wheel drive and a caravan," she explains to Saturday Night Country host Beccy Cole, a long-time friend and collaborator since their days playing together in the Dead Ringer Band.

Having bought a hulking "house on wheels" caravan first, Chambers began second-guessing her decision when subsequently looking to purchase a vehicle big enough to tow it.

"I'm sitting there, looking at these big man's tough trucks, and I was starting to cry. I'm just like, 'I just cannot do this.'

"And my daughter came downstairs, she's looked at the picture of this truck, and said, 'Oh, that's cool, mum.' I'm like, 'Yeah, but I couldn't drive something that big and tough.'

"I had told her that and taught her to think of herself like that, but I wasn't talking to myself like that anymore," Chambers continues, tearing up in the re-telling.

"I know it sounds like just such a little thing, but it really hit me hard because it just made me think, 'Hang on a minute. You gotta talk to yourself in the same way that you are telling everyone else that they should be talking to themselves!'"

She ended up buying the truck. "This massive Chevy Silverado. We towed that van over 76,000 kilometres in one year and didn't get on one plane."

The whole experience is chronicled in the song Silverado Girl.

"The truck is kind of the metaphor of going, 'You can do anything if you just have faith in yourself!'"

Perseverance is the enduring theme that unites Backbone and Just Don't Be A Dickhead — Chambers looking back over her life and legacy with wisdom and humour, producing charming yarns that bear the hallmarks of a naturally gifted songwriter and seasoned performer.

She's currently having "the absolute time of my life" — travelling the nation in a mighty road home, "full circle to my childhood, I'm dragging my kids around now," she chuckles.

She'll be racking up even more kilometres for an extensive national tour, spanning the first six months of 2025 and more than 30 shows. And she's committed to doing it all in the caravan, except maybe Tasmania.

"It's the icing on the cake for me. The tour is the part that I love the most … Being in the room with people and connecting with them through your songs. That is my favourite part of my job."

With a massive tour schedule, along with an unguarded new book and album to promote, it's an incredibly busy time to be Kasey Chambers, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

"Everyone's like, 'Are you tired yet?' No, I'm just getting started!"

Just Don't Be A Dickhead and Backbone are out now.

Kasey Chambers tours Australia this January, kicking off in Tamworth on January 23 and heading right around the country until wrapping in Toowoomba on June 15. Get all the dates and details here.