Singer and songwriter Kat Perkins was, by her own admission, “having a blast … touring with a band; agents were calling us; record companies were calling.”

It was the culmination of years of hard work for the girl from small-town North Dakota — her graduation class had only nine — who had been singing since the age of 5.

And then, in the middle of a tour, “I woke up with a severe pain in my throat.”

The pain was a vocal chord cyst, and immediate surgery was necessary. Suddenly, she told an audience of Ellis Middle School eighth graders on Tuesday, her career in the music business looked like it was over. Perkins spoke to students at both Ellis and I. J. Holton Intermediate School.

“It was the most devastating thing that could happen to me,” she said.

As it turned out, however, the tragedy was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“I had to find a new way to support myself,” she said. “So, I became a nanny” to five children in Edina.

“We would watch ‘The Voice,’” she said, adding she and the kids would pretend they were on the show, playing singers and their coaches.

Then, her voice began to heal after two years. About the same time, producers of “The Voice” called her for an audition. Someone had forwarded a video of her singing that had appeared on YouTube.

Even though a bit intimidated, she embraced the opportunity — and found that the worst time of her life transformed into the best. She reached the semifinals, and she was coached by Adam Levine.

It was Levine who urged her to be “fearless,” a slogan she has since adopted as her own, and a quality she urged students to adopt as well.

“He helped me define that word,” she said.

Perkins urged the students to do three things to pursue their passion.

Being brave was the first. As Levine told her “‘Sometimes, the only thing you want is on the other side of fear; sometimes, the only thing you want is on the other side of doubt. And there is so much joy and success when you step over the line of fear and doubt.’”

“Dream it, do it,” was the second. She said she always “knew that my ‘it’ had to do with music,” and even though kids might not know what their passion is yet, she asked them to work hard to get to the goal, despite what others thought about that passion, or career choice. She came from generations of music teachers; “but I knew in my heart it wasn’t for me.”

And third, she said: “Let you be you. No one knows you better than you do,” adding she recalled when she was young she often felt targeted in music competitions because her father was her school’s music teacher. She recalled winning a talent show, and was taunted that the only reason she won was because her father was the music instructor.

“At lunch, all eight of my classmates sat on one side of the table, and I was alone on the other,” she said.

She realized, she said, that while she was hurt, that “you can’t control other people, places or things … you can only control what you do.”

Perkins ended her talk with some games with students and singing her new song, “Fearless.”

“She was inspiring,” said eighth grader Molly Berglund, 13. “I liked that she was talking with us, not to us,” she said. Classmate Isikiyah Hermann, 13, agreed.

“She said you can do anything if you work hard, even if you have obstacles in your way.”

“You shouldn’t let people bring you down, that’s what I liked,” said Elise Callahan, 13. “You should stand up for yourself.”