10 Things You Didn’t Know About Nick Cave

Nick Cave is one of the most prolific songwriters of this century and already has a career spanned fifty years! A lot has happened since his childhood, his marriages, and the violence in The Birthday Party. These facts about Nick Cave might not be known to the general public.

1. The Death of Nick Cave’s Father That Changed His Life

Nick Cave was a mama’s boy. During his adolescence, his mother, a librarian by trade, forgave him for all sorts of mischief, including those that landed him behind bars. His father, an English teacher and a lover of literature and theater, was stricter and successfully encouraged his son to fall in love with authors like Shakespeare and Dostoevsky.

On the night his father died in a car accident, Nick Cave was at a police station with his mother, paying his bail. Stunned by his father’s death, which he says marked him for life, Nick Cave decided to leave Australia. He was 19 years old.

2. Chaos in London: The Early Days of The Birthday Party

When they arrived in London, The Birthday Party – the first band led by Nick Cave – spread chaos both on and off the stage. Mick Harvey, still Nick Cave’s loyal guitarist today, was the only one who bothered to look for income beyond what the band earned at concerts. For that, Harvey clocked in at a supermarket.

The other members of The Birthday Party, led by an out-of-control Nick Cave, spent months on the brink of destitution, not even realizing they were entitled to a subsidy from the English government.

A resourceful young man, Nick Cave recalled his life as a thief in Australia and resorted to stealing bicycles to sell and earn money to eat. Cave also admits that one night he came up with the idea of blowing up a car on a London street by inserting a sock filled with gasoline into the vehicle’s tank!

3. Bob Dylan’s Approval and Johnny Cash’s Inspiration

In 1985, Nick Cave had to seek Bob Dylan’s approval to include a version of the song “Wanted Man” on the album The Firstborn Is Dead, originally made famous on Johnny Cash’s live album recorded at San Quentin prison.

The approval was delayed and only arrived in 1998, a full 13 years later, when Bob Dylan finally met Nick Cave at Glastonbury to express his appreciation for the version. “It was like God had decided from the heavens,” said Nick Cave, deeply moved.

Johnny Cash, the gothic country master who greatly inspired the Australian, was also blessed by Nick Cave to record an adapted version of a Bad Seeds track, The Mercy Seat, which appeared on one of Cash’s final albums in 2000.

4. The Brief but Intense Romance with PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey had a brief romance with Nick Cave in 1997. The passion was short-lived but intense, with Harvey ending the relationship. This breakup inspired the Australian to compose several songs for The Boatman’s Call (1997), the tenth album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which achieved significant commercial success.

“West Country Girl,” “Black Hair,” and “Green Eyes” are songs dedicated to the love and subsequent heartbreak with PJ Harvey. A year earlier, the two had performed together in a duet – “Henry Lee” – one of the standout tracks on Murder Ballads.

5. Nick Cave and His Unusual Relationship with Music Videos

Making videos is not easy for Nick Cave. For the first album with the Bad Seeds, the label entrusted a substantial sum to create the music video for “In The Ghetto.” The final result, Cave admits, was not as sophisticated as expected because the money ended up being diverted to other priorities.

The video for “Straight To You,” from 1992, begins, according to Mick Harvey, with the band perfectly sober and ends with the group completely drunk, having no idea what they are doing.

The crown jewel, however, is the video for “Do You Love Me?,” filmed in 1996 in a São Paulo dive bar, featuring several local drag queens. Cave’s attempt to blend in included briefly appearing in a blonde wig but failed to fool the performers, who insisted on calling him “ugly bitch.”

6. Nick Cave’s Troubled Youth and Early Life in Australia

Nicholas Edward Cave was born in a small town in southern Australia called Warracknabeal. The third of four children of Dawn and Colin Cave, he was not exactly an “enfant terrible”: from his childhood, the singer recalls long outdoor walks (Warracknabeal was a rural area), trips to the church, and even Sunday school.

At eight years old, Nick Cave sang, imagine this, in the church’s Anglican choir—a religion professed by his parents. However, in his adolescence, Nick Cave’s turbulent streak began to emerge. At age 12, he started abusing alcohol (which he guaranteed was quite normal for that era), and by 19, when he decided to leave Australia, he had been arrested several times for petty offenses, including theft.

His troublemaker reputation did not help him much in school. At Melbourne Grammar School, where his parents sent him, Nick Cave stood out as a “special” and solitary student, perhaps due to his early reading of great literary classics. After briefly studying painting at an art school in 1977, he definitively abandoned academia to pursue music.

7. The Biblical Inspiration Behind Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Nick Cave’s album with the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, is inspired by Lazarus, the biblical character whom Jesus raised from the dead.

“Whenever I heard the story of Lazarus in church as a child, I became very disturbed and worried. Traumatized, even,” explains Nick Cave. “It always made me wonder what Lazarus would think about what had happened to him.”

The Bible has always been one of Cave’s greatest inspirations when writing lyrics. However, he emphasized, “I never wanted to make religious albums or preach a specific point of view.” Another source of inspiration for Cave is the proverbial rock’n’roll mischief. “The amount of songs you can write about women, murder, and God is limited. I think I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

8. Nick Cave’s Tribute to Michael Hutchence

Nick Cave performed at the funeral of Michael Hutchence, the INXS vocalist who passed away in 1997. Cave chose “Into My Arms,” from the album The Boatman’s Call, as his tribute to his compatriot.

Although the funeral was broadcast on television, Nick Cave refused permission for his performance to be televised, keeping it a private moment of respect.

Additionally, Nick Cave is the godfather of Michael Hutchence’s only daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, who was 12 years old at the time.

9. Nick Cave’s Strange Childhood Habits

Nick Cave’s bizarre habits date back to his childhood. As a child, he and his friend Eddie Baumgarten spent their days shooting at rabbits with a revolver and drinking beer.

“We would shoot at rabbits with mixomatosis, who didn’t see us approaching,” Cave recalled in 2001.

But beer wasn’t just for fun—it played a peculiar role. Cave would ask taxi drivers to buy beer for him, store it in the garage, and drink it in industrial quantities with the intention of making himself vomit.

10. Nick Cave’s Strange Childhood Habits

In 1996, following the success of his album Murder Ballads, Nick Cave was nominated for MTV’s Best Male Artist award. However, he declined the nomination, expressing discomfort with the competitive nature of such awards. In a letter to MTV, Cave wrote:

“To all those at MTV,

I would like to start by thanking you all for the support you have given me over recent years and I am both grateful and flattered by the nominations that I have received for Best Male Artist. The airplay given to both the Kylie Minogue and P.J. Harvey duets from my latest album Murder Ballads has not gone unnoticed and has been greatly appreciated. So again, my sincere thanks.

Having said that, I feel that it’s necessary for me to request that my nomination for Best Male Artist be withdrawn and furthermore, any nominations for such awards that may arise in later years be presented to those who feel more comfortable with the competitive nature of these ceremonies. I, myself, do not. I have always been of the opinion that my music is unique and individual and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those who would reduce things to mere measuring. I am in competition with no one.

My relationship with my muse is a delicate one at the best of times, and I feel that it is my duty to protect her from influences that may offend her fragile nature.

She comes to me with the gift of song and in return, I treat her with the respect I feel she deserves—in this case, this means not subjecting her to the indignities of judgment and competition. My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race, and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel—this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!

Once again, to the people at MTV, I appreciate the zeal and energy that was put behind my last record, I truly do, and say thank you and again I say thank you, but no… no thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Nick Cave“