Paul Maurice Kelly (born 13 January 1955) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter and guitarist. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five. Kelly's music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output straddles folk, rock and country. His lyrics capture the vastness of the culture and landscape of Australia by chronicling life about him for almost 50 years. David Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise". Kelly has said, "Song writing is mysterious to me. I still feel like a total beginner. I don't feel like I have got it nailed yet."
After growing up in Adelaide, Kelly travelled around Australia before settling in Melbourne in 1976. He became involved in the pub rock scene and drug culture and recorded two albums with the Dots. Kelly moved to Sydney by 1985, where he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls. The band was renamed Paul Kelly and the Messengers, initially only for international releases, to avoid possible racial interpretations of the word "coloured". At the end of the 1980s, Kelly returned to Melbourne, and in 1991 he disbanded the Messengers.
Kelly's Top 40 singles include "Billy Baxter", "Before Too Long", "Darling It Hurts", "To Her Door" (his highest-charting local hit in 1987), "Dumb Things" (appeared on United States charts in 1988) and "Roll on Summer". Top-20 albums include Gossip, Under the Sun, Comedy, Songs from the South (1997 compilation), ...Nothing but a Dream, Stolen Apples, Spring and Fall, The Merri Soul Sessions, Seven Sonnets and a Song, Death's Dateless Night (with Charlie Owen), Life Is Fine (his first number-one album) and Nature. Kelly has won 14 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards, including his induction into their hall of fame in 1997. Dan Kelly, his nephew, is a singer and guitarist in his own right. Dan performed with Kelly on Ways and Means and Stolen Apples. Both were members of Stardust Five, which released a self-titled album in 2006. On 22 September 2010, Kelly released his memoir, How to Make Gravy, which he described as "it's not traditional; it's writing around the A–Z theme – I tell stories around the song lyrics in alphabetical order". His biographical film Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, directed by Ian Darling, was released to cinemas in October 2012.
In 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) listed the Top 30 Australian songs of all time, which included Kelly's To Her Door, and Treaty, written by Kelly and members of Yothu Yindi. Aside from Treaty, Kelly wrote or co-wrote several songs on Indigenous Australian social issues and historical events. He provided songs for many other artists, tailoring them to their particular vocal range. The album Women at the Well from 2002 had 14 female artists record his songs in tribute.
Kelly was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017 for distinguished service to the performing arts and to the promotion of the national identity through contributions as a singer, songwriter and musician. Kelly was married and divorced twice; he has three children and resides in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne.
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Early life and education
Paul Maurice Kelly was born on 13 January 1955 in Adelaide, to John Erwin Kelly, a lawyer, and Josephine (née Filippini), the sixth of eight surviving children. According to Rip It Up magazine, "legend has it" that Kelly's mother gave birth to him "in a taxi outside North Adelaide's Calvary Hospital".
Although Kelly was raised as a Roman Catholic, he later described himself as a non-believer. He is the great-great-grandson of Jeremiah Kelly, who emigrated from Ireland in 1852 and settled in Clare, South Australia. His paternal grandfather, Francis Kelly, established a law firm in 1917, which his father, John, joined in 1937.
John Kelly died in 1968 at the age of 52, after having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease three years earlier. Paul Kelly was thirteen years old when his father died. Kelly described his father: "I have good memories, he was the kind of father that, well, I missed him when he died very much. The older children were growing into him at the time he died. He was not well enough to play sport with me."
Kelly's maternal grandfather was an Argentine-born, Italian-speaking opera singer, Count Ercole Filippini, a leading baritone for the La Scala Opera Company in Milan.
Filippini was touring Australia in 1914 with a Spanish opera company when World War I broke out; Filippini stayed and later married Anne McPharland, one of his students. As Countessa Anne Filippini, she was Australia's first female symphony orchestra conductor. She sang the role of Marguerite in Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio Perth's performance of Faust in 1928.
Kelly's grandparents started the Italo-Australian Opera Company, which toured the country in the 1920s.
Josephine raised the younger children alone after John's death, but found time to assist others in need. Paul's oldest sister, Anne, became a nun and went on to write hymns, while a younger sister, Mary-Jo, plays piano in Latin bands and teaches music.
Career
1974–1984: Early career and with the Dots
While travelling around Australia, Paul Kelly made his first public performance in 1974 in Hobart. He later recalled:
I was living there at the time and there was a folk club at Salamanca Place. They had a night, I think a Monday night, where anyone could get up. I sang Dylan's "Girl from North Country" and "Streets of Forbes", a traditional Australian song about Ben Hall. I can't really remember how it went – I remember I had a lot to drink afterwards from relief. I was incredibly nervous.
His first published song, "It's the Falling Apart that Makes You", was written after listening to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks at the age of 19, although in an interview with Drum Media he recalled writing his first song: "It was an open-tuning and had four lines about catching trains. I have got a recording of it somewhere. It was called 'Catching a Train'. I wrote a lot of songs about trains early on, trains and fires, and then I moved on to water".
In 1976, Kelly appeared on Debutantes, a compilation album featuring various Melbourne-based artists, and joined pub-rockers The High Rise Bombers from 1977 to 1978. The High Rise Bombers included Kelly (vocals, guitar, songwriter), Martin Armiger (guitar, vocals, songwriter), Lee Cass (bass guitar), Chris Dyson (guitar), Sally Ford (saxophone, songwriter), John Lloyd (drums), and Keith Shadwick (saxophone). Chris Langman (guitar, vocals) replaced Dyson in early 1978. [Langman never played with the High Rise Bombers and is incorrectly listed as a guitarist on the Melbourne Club album]. In August, after Armiger left for The Sports and Ford for the Kevins, Kelly formed Paul Kelly and the Dots with Langman and Lloyd. The High Rise Bombers recorded two tracks, "She's Got It" and "Domestic Criminal", which appeared on The Melbourne Club, a 1981 compilation by various artists on Missing Link Records.
Kelly had already established himself as a respected songwriter—other Melbourne musicians would go to see him on their nights off. Richard Guilliatt, writing for The Monthly, later described Kelly from a 1979 performance at Richmond's Kingston Hotel, the singer was "a skinny guy with a head of black curls framing a pale face and a bent nose... singing with his eyes closed, one arm outstretched and the other resting on the body of the Fender Telecaster". Kelly was introduced to Hilary Brown at one of the Dots' gigs and they later married – the relationship is described in "When I First Met Your Ma" (1992). Brown's father supplied Kelly with a gravy recipe – used on "How to Make Gravy" (1996). Their son, Declan, was born in 1980.
1985–1991: Coloured Girls to Messengers
Paul Kelly stayed with Don Walker (Cold Chisel) in Kings Cross – Walker had lived with Hilary's sister – and wrote new songs on Walker's piano. Kelly then moved into a flat with Paul Hewson (Dragon) in Elizabeth Bay. Both Walker and Hewson encouraged Kelly to continue with his song-writing. By January 1985, he recorded the self-funded album—at a cost of $3,500—Post. Session musicians included Michael Barclay (Weddings Parties Anything) on harmonies, guitarist Steve Connolly (the Zimmermen), and bass guitarist Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo, X). They spent two weeks recording at Clive Shakespeare's studio. Shakespeare engineered the album and co-produced with Kelly. It was released in May 1985 on the independent label White Records, and licensed to Mushroom Records.
Kelly dedicated Post to his former flatmate, Hewson, who had died of a heroin overdose in January. According to McFarlane: "[it's] a stark, highly personalised collection of acoustic songs that showcased the extraordinary breadth of Kelly's songwriting skills." Rolling Stone (Australia) hailed Post as the best record of 1985. AllMusic's Mike DeGagne felt "While he focuses on life's daily tragedies and tribulations, there is a missing element in the music, as it lacks any vigor or flash". A single, "From St Kilda to Kings Cross", was released from the album, but did not chart. Russell Crowe, during his first trip to the US, visited the tourist venue of Death Valley and used Post to refocus himself: "[his] concise insights and acerbic wisdom are exactly the music for strolling the bottom of ancient oceans, both literal and metaphoric". After recording Post, Kelly established a full-time band, which included Armiger, Barclay, and Connolly, bass guitarist Jon Schofield, and keyboardist Peter Bull.
Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls were named through a joke based on Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side". Armiger soon left, and the Coloured Girls line-up stabilised in late 1985 as Barclay, Bull, Connolly, and Schofield. Stuart Coupe, Kelly's manager, advised him to sign with Regular Records due to difficulty re-signing with Mushroom's Michael Gudinski. Michelle Higgins, Mushroom's public relations officer, was a Kelly supporter and locked herself into a Sebel Townhouse Hotel room—at Mushroom's expense—for nearly a week in mid-1986, and refused to leave until Gudinski had signed Kelly to a two-album recording contract. Kelly performed for The Rock Party, a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, which included other Australasian musicians. The Rock Party released a 12" single, "Everything to Live For", which was produced by Joe Wissert, Phil Rigger, and Phil Beazley.
1992–1999: Solo career and with others
Since 1992 Paul Kelly has had a solo career, fronted the Paul Kelly Band, and worked in occasional collaborations with other songwriters and performers. In 1992 he was asked to compose songs for Funerals and Circuses, a Roger Bennett play about racial tensions in small-town Australia. Kelly took the role of a petrol attendant when the play premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival that year and was directed by his wife, Fairfax. Kelly co-wrote "Hey Boys" with Mark Seymour (Hunters & Collectors) for the soundtrack of the 1992 Australian film, Garbo; when released as a single it peaked at No. 62. Kelly contributed songs and vocals to the soundtrack of the 1993 television series Seven Deadly Sins.
Kelly's first post-Messengers solo release was the live double CD Live, May 1992, released in November 1992. AllMusic's Brett Hartenbach noted that Kelly's band had fleshed out his songs in the studio, but he was still able to show "his vignettes of life, love, and the underbelly of both have plenty of power on their own". Kelly had relocated to Los Angeles and signed with Vanguard Records to tour the US as a solo artist. While in Los Angeles he produced fellow Australian Renée Geyer's album Difficult Woman (1994). Kelly returned to Australia in 1993 and wrote a collection of lyrics, aptly titled Lyrics, which opens with a quote from Anton Chekhov: "I don't have what you would call a philosophy or coherent world view so I shall have to limit myself to describing how my heroes love, marry, give birth, die and speak."
His next album Wanted Man, released in 1994, reached No. 11. Kelly also composed music for the 1994 film Everynight ... Everynight, directed by Alkinos Tsilimidos. It is set in the notorious H division of Victoria's Pentridge Prison. Kelly's next solo releases were Deeper Water in 1995 and Live at the Continental and the Esplanade in 1996. Between March and May 1995 Kelly undertook a seven-week tour of North America, appearing on several dates with Liz Phair and Joe Jackson.
By 1996, Paul Kelly Band members included Stephen Hadley (bass, ex-Black Sorrows), Bruce Haymes (keyboards), Peter Luscombe (drums, ex-Black Sorrows), and Shane O'Mara (guitar). Spencer P. Jones (Beasts of Bourbon) was guest guitarist on some performances. This line-up issued the CD-EP How to Make Gravy, with the title track earning Kelly a 'Song of the Year' nomination at the 1998 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Music Awards. APRA's Debbie Kruger noted Kelly's "attraction to the theatrical" where the same protagonist is described in "To Her Door", "Love Never Runs on Time" (from Wanted Man) and "How to Make Gravy".
2000–2009: Soundtracks and tribute albums
During the 2000s Paul Kelly worked as a composer for film and TV scores and soundtracks, including Lantana (also as a member of Professor Ratbaggy), Silent Partner, and One Night the Moon in 2001, Fireflies in 2004, and Jindabyne in 2006. These works have resulted in five award wins: ARIA 'Best Original Soundtrack' for Lantana (with Hadley, Haymes and O'Mara); Australian Film Institute (AFI) 'Open Craft Award', Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards 'Best Music Score', and Screen Music Award 'Best Soundtrack Album' for One Night the Moon (with Mairead Hannan, Carmody, John Romeril, Deirdre Hannan, and Alice Garner); Valladolid International Film Festival 'Best Music' award for Jindabyne; and six further nominations.
Kelly also acted in One Night the Moon alongside his then wife, Fairfax, and with their younger daughter Memphis. All three sing on the soundtrack, including together for the lullaby, "One Night the Moon". According to Romaine Moreton, Australian Screen Online curator, the "lullaby that the family sings, written by Paul Kelly, sets the tone of the film ... The song is used in this film as a vehicle to explore the characters' interior worlds, something very unusual for a film". Kelly and Fairfax separated before the film's release.
Roll on Summer was released in 2000 as a four-track EP, which peaked at No. 40 on the ARIA singles charts. Kelly issued ...Nothing but a Dream in 2001, returning to his core singer-songwriter style. It peaked at No. 7 on the albums chart, and achieved gold record status. The North American version of ...Nothing but a Dream added all four tracks from the Roll on Summer EP as bonus tracks. Murray Bramwell appraised four Kelly-related works in Adelaide Review, "each of them indicative of the rich variety of his gift". On the album ...Nothing but a Dream, he preferred the opening track, "If I Could Start Today Again", to the radio single, "Somewhere in the City", and found the album generally to be "full of familiar Kelly riffs and trademarks". On Silent Partner Kelly's songwriting with Hale provides "some splendid instrumentals" with "a delightfully airy sound". The Lantana soundtrack showed Kelly's "confidence as a composer and his strong grasp of a wide range of musical styles". Finally, One Night the Moon included Mairead Hannan's "richly melodic Irish airs" which "beautifully counterpoint Kelly's work" and Carmody's "distinctive ballads".
In March 2001 Kelly was a support act for Bob Dylan's tour of Australia. Between August and November Kelly performed a series of acoustic shows in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, and France (the latter supporting Ani DiFranco). In 2002 he undertook a six-week tour of North America, which was followed by a tour of the UK and Ireland later that year. In 2002 and 2003 two tribute albums of Kelly's songs were released: Women at the Well featured songs performed by female artists, including Bic Runga, Jenny Morris, Renée Geyer, Magic Dirt, Rebecca Barnard (Rebecca's Empire), Christine Anu, and Kasey Chambers; and Stories of Me, which featured fellow songwriters James Reyne, Mia Dyson, and Jeff Lang. Chambers, a country music artist, sees Kelly as a role model: "He's the perfect example of the storyteller that I would love to be". In 2003 Kelly undertook a tour of North America, the UK, and Ireland, performing at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival and again at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
2010–2013: How to Make Gravy, Stories of Me and Spring and Fall
Paul Kelly published his memoir, How to Make Gravy, via Penguin Books (Australia) on 22 September 2010. "It's a mongrel memoir. It's a bit hard to describe at the moment. It's not traditional; it's writing around the A-Z theme – I tell stories around the song lyrics in alphabetical order. It's slow, so it will be a while coming, but I'll get there". As a companion to his memoir, he issued an 8×CD box set, A – Z Recordings, with live performances from his A – Z Tours from 2004 to 2010. The 105 tracks are listed alphabetically, and were typically performed over four nights. The set includes a booklet of photographs. The related audio book on 16×CDs has Kelly joined by Australian actors, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Judy Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ben Mendelsohn each reading a chosen chapter.
Maurice Frawley, a guitarist for Kelly in various groups who co-wrote "Look So Fine, Feel So Low" (1987), died of cancer in May 2009. Kelly worked with Charlie Owen and others to create a 3×CD tribute album, Long Gone Whistle – The Songs of Maurice Frawley, which was released in August 2010. In July that year, Kelly performed at Splendour in the Grass. On 15 December 2010 he was inducted into The Age EG Awards Hall of Fame. In April 2011 Kelly performed at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival (Bluesfest), which was followed by appearances as a special guest at Dylan's concerts in Sydney and Melbourne. Later that month, Kelly co-headlined a show with Neil Finn at Red Hill Auditorium in Perth; it was the first music concert at the new venue. In May his memoir, How to Make Gravy, was short-listed for the Prime Minister's Literary Award in the non-fiction category; while in July it was co-winner of 'Biography of the Year' at the Australian Book Industry Awards – with Anh Do's The Happiest Refugee.
On 29 September 2012 Kelly performed "How to Make Gravy" and "Leaps and Bounds" at the AFL Grand Final although most of the performance was not broadcast on Seven Network's pre-game segment. Nui Te Koha of Sunday Herald Sun declared "Kelly, an integral part of Melbourne folklore and its music scene, and a noted footy tragic, deserved his place on the Grand Final stage – which has been long overdue ... broadcaster Seven's refusal to show Kelly's performance, except the last verse of 'Leaps and Bounds', was no laughing matter". On 19 October that year, Kelly issued a new studio album, Spring and Fall, which debuted at No. 8. It was recorded with Dan Kelly and Machine Translations' J Walker. Guest musicians include former band members Peter and Dan Luscombe, Vika and Linda Bull, and new collaborator, Laura Jean.
2013–2016: Collaborative albums
During February and March 2013, Kelly and Neil Finn undertook a collaborative tour of Australia. Their performance on 10 March at the Sydney Opera House was recorded for the live album, Goin' Your Way (8 November 2013). It was issued as a 2× CD, which peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart; and also as a DVD, which peaked at No. 1 on the related ARIA Music DVD Chart. Later in March, Kelly toured New Zealand with Dan Kelly to promote Spring and Fall by playing in church venues.
Goin' Your Way was the first of several collaborative albums Kelly would release in the following years. The Merri Soul Sessions was released December 2014, and features contributions from the Bull sisters, Kira Puru, Clairy Browne and Dan Sultan. The ensemble would also tour together in late 2014 and early 2015. In 2016, Kelly would release two albums: Seven Sonnets and a Song in April, which was a musical recreation of selected works by William Shakespeare; and Death's Dateless Night in October, a covers album with Charlie Owen.
2017–present: Life Is Fine to Seventy
Kelly's first solo album in five years, Life Is Fine, was released in August 2017. The album became his first number-one album and won him four ARIA Awards at that year's ceremony. In November and December 2017, Kelly and his band undertook a seventeen-performance tour of thirteen metropolitan and regional Australian cities, as well as four performances in three cities in New Zealand to promote the release of Life is Fine. Supports on the tour included Steve Earle, Middle Kids, Busby Marou and The Eastern. Kelly was also a featured artist on the 2018 Groovin' the Moo festival.
In August 2018, Kelly announced the release of a new album, Nature, in October. The album's lead single, "With the One I Love", was released on the same day. He released another compilation album in November 2019, covering 1985–2019, Songs from the South: 1985-2019. In September 2019, he performed at the MCG in the pre-game show at the 2019 AFL Grand Final Day.
On 5 February 2020, Kelly released a single titled, "Sleep, Australia, Sleep". The song addresses Australia's response to climate change. Before the release of the single, the lyrics were published by The Sydney Morning Herald, with Kelly describing the song as "a lament in the form of a lullaby. Paradoxically, it can also be heard as a wake up call - a critique of the widespread attitude amongst humans that we are the most important life form on the planet."
In September 2021, Kelly released a song inspired by Australian Rules footballer Eddie Betts and his battle with racism, titled "Every Step of the Way". On 19 November 2021, Kelly released his twenty-eighth studio album, Paul Kelly's Christmas Train. In July 2023, Kelly released a book and song titled, "Khawaja", inspired by Usman Khawaja. In November 2023, Kelly was inducted into the South Australian Music Awards Hall of Fame. In 2024, Kelly released Fever Longing Still, his twenty-ninth studio album. The album's title is lifted from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 147. Upon announcement on 1 August 2024, Kelly said "There has been a long gap since the last album of new songs and I realise now that this record is a bit like Gossip, an album with a long gestation where the songs are all quite different to each other in style."
In December 2024, a film adaptation of Kelly's song "How to Make Gravy" was released under the same name. The film expands the storyline and characters of the original song, and was produced on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Kelly made a cameo appearance in the film as a bus driver.
Musical style and songwriting
Paul Kelly has been acknowledged as one of Australia's best singer-songwriters. His music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output comfortably straddles folk, rock, and country. His lyrics capture Australia's vastness both in culture and landscape; he has chronicled life about him for over 30 years and is described as the poet laureate of Australia. According to music writer Glenn A. Baker, his Australian-ness may be a reason Kelly has not achieved international success. David Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise."
Fellow songwriter Neil Finn (Crowded House) has said, "There is something unique and powerful about the way Kelly mixes up everyday detail with the big issues of life, death, love and struggle – not a trace of pretence or fakery in there". Ross Clelland, writing for Rolling Stone, described Kelly: "[W]hile he was (rightly) lauded for his ability to sing of injustice without ranting, or deal with the darker sides of human nature non-judgementally, often overlooked was the fact he could write a damn fine melodic hook to go with those words". Tim Freedman (The Whitlams) acknowledges Kelly, Peter Garrett (Midnight Oil), and John Schumann (Redgum) as inspiring him by "[furnishing] our suburbs with our own myths and social history". However, Kelly has been quoted as saying "Song writing is mysterious to me. I still feel like a total beginner. I don't feel like I have got it nailed yet". In 2007 Kelly donated his 'Lee Oskar' harmonica to the Sydney Powerhouse Museum. The museum's statement of significance cites Kelly's talent as a songwriter, his distinctive voice, and his harmonica playing, particularly on Live, May 1992.
Kelly described his songwriting as "a scavenging art, a desperate act. For me it's a bit from here, a bit from there, fumbling around, never quite knowing what you're doing ... Song writing is like a way of feeling connected to mystery." He has resisted the label of 'storyteller' and insists that his songs are not strictly autobiographical; "they come from imagining someone in a particular situation. Sometimes a sequence of events happens which makes it more a story, but other times it's just that situation". Sometimes the same character is found in different songs, such as in "To Her Door", "Love Never Runs on Time", and "How to Make Gravy".
Kelly has also provided songs for many other artists, tailoring them to their particular vocal range. Women at the Well (2002) had 14 female artists record his songs in tribute. According to Kelly, he adapted his song "Foggy Highway" for Renée Geyer because "I admired her deep soul singing, ferocious and vulnerable ... When I heard the finished version ... the hairs rose up on the back of my neck." Kelly and The Stormwater Boys recorded it in a bluegrass style as the title track for the 2005 album Foggy Highway. Divinyls' lead singer Christina Amphlett recorded "Before Too Long"—she was attracted by the lyrics—she interpreted the song's narrator as being a stalker, and provided a female perspective in a darkly menacing manner à-la Fatal Attraction.
Personal life
Kelly's first marriage (1980–84) was to Hilary Brown; the couple had a son, Declan, who later worked as a radio presenter on 3RRR's Against the Arctic from 2006. As of 2007, he was a DJ around Melbourne and played the drums. For Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, Declan recalled his feelings whenever he hears "When I First Met Your Ma", which describes Kelly's courtship of Hilary Brown. Brown remembered "songs written especially for and about her" but also about other women, she quipped "There are too many girls out there! One for every song!"
Kelly's second marriage (1993–2001) was to actress Kaarin Fairfax. The Monthly's Richard Guilliatt travelled with Kelly, his band and "his new love and future wife, the diminutive" Fairfax on a section of the group's US tour prior to the release of Under the Sun. The couple have two daughters, Madeleine and Memphis. From 1989 to 1992, Fairfax supplied backing vocals on tracks by Paul Kelly and the Messengers. In 1990, as Mary-Jo Starr, a country music artist, Fairfax released three singles and an album called Too Many Movies. Memphis Kelly starred alongside her parents in the Rachel Perkins short film One Night the Moon (2001) for which Paul Kelly composed the score. After the couple separated in 2001, Madeleine and Memphis stayed with Fairfax, but Kelly maintained contact with his daughters. In 2010, Madeleine and Memphis formed a pop indie trio, Wishful, with Sam Humphrey; they were later joined by Harley Hamer and Caleb Williams. In March 2014, Wishful performed at the Port Fairy Folk Festival. Since 2020, Memphis has pursued a solo career under the moniker of Memphis LK, releasing her debut EP Too Much Fun in 2023 and its follow-up Say in 2024.
Kelly was in a relationship with Sian Prior, a journalist, university lecturer and opera singer, from 2002 to 2011. They met when Kelly was interviewed on her Sunday Arts ABC radio program. Kelly wrote "You're 39, You're Beautiful and You're Mine" for Prior who was already 40 by the time he finished. Prior has played clarinet and provided backing vocals on some of Kelly's songs, as well as with the Stardust Five. She has performed live with Kelly on several occasions, including clarinet on six tracks of his A – Z Recordings boxed set.
In his memoir, Kelly credited Prior with inspiring him to give up his long-term heroin addiction, "I got lucky, I met a woman who said: 'It's me or it'. She gave me the number of a counsellor ... I thought about 'it' every day for a long time. Less now". The couple had separated during the making of Kelly's biopic, however the separation is not mentioned and Prior is not interviewed in the film. According to Prior after a date in 2011, "[we] came home. He sat on the bed. 'I've decided I want to be single again,' he told her. 'Yes, I have been with other women.'" The split occurred after she had filmed her interview and "after the breakup, [she] requested the footage not be used. Her presence in Kelly's life is as a footnote in the credits. It's as if she was never there."
Awards and recognition
Paul Kelly has won several awards, including 17 ARIA Awards from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and five APRA Awards from either the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) alone or together with the Australian Guild of Screen Composers. APRA named "To Her Door", solely written by Kelly, and "Treaty", written by Kelly and members of Yothu Yindi, in their Top 30 best Australian songs of all time in 2001. Kelly was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside the Bee Gees and Graeme Bell. He has won six Country Music Awards from the Country Music Association of Australia, and four Mo Awards (Australian entertainment industry). Kelly was a Victorian State Finalist for the 2012 Australian of the Year Award. Kelly was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017 for distinguished service to the performing arts and to the promotion of the national identity through contributions as a singer, songwriter and musician.
In August 2022, the City of Adelaide renamed a laneway in the city centre off Flinders Street Paul Kelly Lane. Previously named Pilgrim Lane after the adjacent Pilgrim Uniting Church, the lane is now called Paul Kelly Lane. It is the fourth such renaming after musicians associated with the city, the others being Sia Furler, No Fixed Address, and Cold Chisel.