There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the 49-year-old’s rendition of Cold Chisel’s When The War Is Over moved judge Delta Goodrem to turn her chair in support.
Crissy has spent the last 13 years of her life in the military and hopes The Voice is the start of a new chapter.
“I struggle every day. In 2009 I deployed to Afghanistan. When I came home I was diagnosed with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” said Crissy.
“This morning, getting myself here to this stage has been a really hard road. So many times I said, ‘I can’t do this’,” she admitted before her audition.
Crissy was overcome with emotion after her performance when she realised Delta had turned her chair.
“I was so overwhelmed with the process,” she later told Today Extra.
“I sang the last two lines and when still no one had turned around, I thought, ‘oh well, I’ve given it my best shot and got further than I ever thought I would’.
“When Delta turned I just lost it. It was a shock actually.”
Crissy says the Cold Chisel song has special meaning to her – “the war in my head still goes on” – but she also adds that the “tide is turning for her”.
Being on The Voice and competing in swimming and power-lifting for Australia at the Invictus Games in Florida has given her newfound hope.
“There are not all dark clouds,” says Crissy, who also got to meet Prince Harry and former US president George W. Bush at the games.
“I feel like I’m in a bubble. If you’d told me six months ago that I’d be doing this, I would have said there’s something wrong with you.
“Now I’m frightened it’s going to stop. But I’m not going to stop reinventing myself. You can’t let PTSD define you. You’ve got to get out there and kick it, I really believe that.”
