I’ve always been fascinated by your fingernails, but I had no idea you do them yourself. Tell us about your nail regime.

I started doing my nails about 25 years ago. Once I started touring so much, I couldn’t go back into a salon so I do it myself. It is a fast-drying gel. I’m usually really, really on to doing them because they’re so important – I can’t play guitar in my style without them.

They have come off before, when they’re a bit old. I’ve ripped them off by accident when I’ve slipped or picked up something heavy. The first time it happened, I had to have a prosthetic nail for a while – I was touring so hard that my fake nail was lifting up the nail bed. It didn’t hurt because it happened so slowly, but I was taping it down. My prosthetic nail was a finger pick flipped around and attached with electrical tape on to the tip of my finger. I had to do that for a couple months. But for the most part, my nails are really healthy. I can’t believe I’m talking nail hygiene. [laughs] I’m quite techie on it.

What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“You are your word in action.” That’s something I’ve learned by doing lots of men’s work – they are gatherings where men try to sort their shit out, [instead of] outsourcing that work. There was a lot of talk about how talking means nothing without being congruent. When you do what you say, and you say what you do – that’s an extremely important attribute to have as a human.

There’s a great project called the ManKind Project that is all about the reclamation of the male archetype out of the patriarchy. We are lovers and warriors, but we’re also nurturers and carers. And the toxicness that we see around the world is because of the patriarchy. I think a lot of people think “down with the patriarchy” means “down with guys”. But this system we have doesn’t really favour a man who is ultra-sensitive. We’re beaten into a certain shape, and that shape can make us toxic in the world. We’re meant to be partners and companions and fathers and lovers – not just workers and soldiers and CEOs.

Do you ever miss your hair?

It’s right here! Do you mean my dreadlocks? No, not at all! I had dreadlocks for like 13 years. Do anything for 13 years, you’ve usually had enough of it.

Your performances of your instrumental song Ocean have been viewed millions of times online. Every single version is a bit different – how has it evolved over the years?

It is like a really personal workout regime – sometimes I’ll run for 10 minutes and then do 50 push-ups, and sometimes I run for 20 minutes and only do five push-ups. Ocean is kind of the same. How it sounds depends on how I feel. If something sounds really cool, I might do it twice. There’s room for good improvisation or a happy accident – a lot of us musicians live for happy accidents. I add to it every time I play it – and so the song goes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes.

If I don’t play that song in every set, the spell doesn’t happen with the audience. It’s a strange thing – I can be doing it alright and then I’ll play Ocean, and then the whole crowd is like, “Oh, that’s what this is!”

What’s been your most memorable interaction with a fan?

I’ve had a lot of good ones! But this 11-year-old kid in Paris wrote me these lovely handwritten letters and asked to meet. He had learned Ocean probably better than anybody I have seen – and I’ve met a lot of people who’ve learned Ocean for their music exams, which has been so cool. But he played it perfectly. I was like, “Bro, what is going on with you?” He could do all the little idiosyncratic things that I did. He’s such a sweetheart – I’ve seen him since, he is an adult now. Sometimes he helps my crew at gigs because he wants to be a sound engineer. His name is Julian.

What book, album or film do you always return to, and why?

There is a book called Over the Range by Ion Idriess – it’s an account of a journalist who goes out on a patrol throughout northern Kimberley to investigate some murders. It’s a snapshot of 1920s-1930s northern Australia, it is like a whole other world.

And I always seem to go back to the Christopher Nolan Batmans. I’m not into the Marvel shit at all, but Christopher Nolan’s Batman is so well done. I really just love his aesthetic. Christian Bale is a great actor. So is Heath Ledger. That is my guilty indulgence. Part of me goes, “John, you’ve watched this so many times. Learn a language!” Nah, I want to watch Batman Begins.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

Well, there’s been paid work and unpaid work. Unpaid work is always weird. Emptying my compostable toilet when I lived in Mullumbimby, that was a nice, dirty, skanky job. And I once shaved a man’s back at a Super Bowl party in California. My older brother’s friend was like, “Hey before we go out, can you shave my back?” Like, I guess? I don’t even know you!

As for paid jobs, I did a lot of fruit picking after high school. I also did stained glass when I moved to California for a year after high school, for $5 an hour. Two hundred bucks for 40 hours a week. Yeah baby! That’s wild.

Do you have a nemesis?

Oh me. I’m my greatest enemy. I don’t hate myself – I just find that the person I say the worst things about happens to be me. Which is kind of sad.

What is the weirdest thing you’ve done for love?

I’ve done so many crazy things for love, and all worth it. But I’ll change the sheet on my wife’s bed. I don’t give a fuck about it but she loves it. My love language is words of affirmation, but hers is acts of service. Some people see love when someone says, “Oh, I thought of you today”, or “I knew that you had a meeting tomorrow, so I printed out everything you needed”, or “I’ve made you a cup of coffee and the kitchen’s clean because I know you can think better when it is clean”. My wife’s love language is that. So I’ll often change the sheets before she gets back from tour. She loves it, and I just find it strange. It is so funny how people receive love in different ways.

What is the most chaotic thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?

There was a fan in Antwerp who was bothering me all night. He was really drunk and being loud and intense right in front of me. I came up to the quietest song in the set, and he was singing along like we were soccer lads at a Manchester football club. For the whole song he was literally on my shit. I’m just surviving this guy and people in the audience were like, what’s happening? So the song ends on three beats – boom, boom, boom – and on the last boom I literally grabbed his face. My hand wrapped around his face like some alien and I led him off stage by his face. He was so shocked!

• John Butler is touring Australia 30 September to 5 October, then the UK and Europe for the rest of the year; see here for dates. His latest album Prism is out now (Jarrah Records/MGM)