For many longtime fans of my music in Australia, the story of my career is likely to be forever linked to my brush with musical director Geoff Harvey on the Midday show in 1997. I broke my piano stool over his piano (I didn’t know it was his) when Ben Folds Five played his show, our first national television performance.

Harvey was understandably, as program host Kerri-Anne Kennerley said at the time, “an unhappy chappy”.

As the show went to a commercial, Harvey headed my way, flanked by a couple serious-looking men ready for a fight. As a shouting match ensued between my crew and his, my band was whisked into the elevator to the green room where we watched Harvey on television, dressing us down for being spoiled Americans with no talent.

For the rest of the week Midday played slow-motion clips of my stool hitting Harvey’s piano as magazines and newspapers ran pieces about the whole thing. It was all good timing for our album release. The following week, our second album, Whatever and Ever, Amen, debuted in the top 5 Australian album charts. And I suddenly found myself recognised on every corner. I got high-fives from young people I’d never met and scowls of disapproval from the old. We all love a feud.