Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the
rock band
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love, and violence.
[Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Steve Huey, ]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, Biography)))">(((Nick Cave > Biography))) Retrieved 30 September 2009.
Born and raised in rural
Victoria, Cave studied art in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
before fronting
the Birthday Party, one of the city's leading
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
bands, in the late 1970s. In 1980, the band moved to London, England. Disillusioned by their stay there, they evolved towards a darker and more challenging sound that helped inspire
gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...
, and they acquired a reputation as "the most violent live band in the world". Cave became recognised for his confrontational performances, his shock of black hair and pale, emaciated look. The band broke up soon after relocating to
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
in 1982. The following year, Cave formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, later described as one of rock's "most redoubtable, enduring" bands. Much of their early material is set in a mythic American
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
, drawing on
spirituals and
Delta blues, while Cave's preoccupation with
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
notions of good versus evil culminated in what has been called his
signature song
A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...
, "
The Mercy Seat" (1988), and in his debut novel, ''
And the Ass Saw the Angel'' (1989). In 1988, he appeared in ''
Ghosts… of the Civil Dead'', an Australian prison film which he both co-wrote and scored.
The 1990s saw Cave move between
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and England, and find inspiration in the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
. He went on to achieve mainstream success with quieter, piano-driven ballads, notably the
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...
duet "
Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1996), and "
Into My Arms" (1997). Turning increasingly to film in the 2000s, Cave wrote the Australian Western ''
The Proposition'' (2005), also composing its soundtrack with frequent collaborator
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
. The pair's film score credits include ''
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' (2007), ''
The Road'' (2009) and ''
Hell or High Water'' (2016). Their
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...
side project
Grinderman has released two studio albums since 2006. In 2009, he released his second novel, ''
The Death of Bunny Munro'', and starred in the semi-fictional "
day in the life" film ''
20,000 Days on Earth'' (2014). His more recent musical work features
ambient and
electronic elements, as well as increasingly abstract lyrics, informed in part by grief over his son Arthur's 2015 death, which is explored in the documentary ''
One More Time with Feeling'' (2016) and the Bad Seeds' 2019 album ''
Ghosteen''. The band's 18th and latest album, ''
Wild God'', was released in 2024.
Since 2018, Cave has maintained ''The Red Hand Files'', a newsletter he uses to respond to questions from fans. He has collaborated with the likes of
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
,
Shane MacGowan and ex-partner
PJ Harvey. His songs have also been covered by a wide range of artists, including Cash ("The Mercy Seat"),
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
("
Loverman") and
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...
("
Red Right Hand"). He was inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007, and he was named an
Officer of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
in 2017.
Early life and education
Nicholas Edward Cave was born on 22 September 1957 in
Warracknabeal, a country town in the Australian state of
Victoria, to Dawn Cave (née Treadwell) and Colin Frank Cave.
He has two older brothers, Tim (born 1952) and Peter (born 1954), and a younger sister, Julie (born 1959). As a child, he lived in Warracknabeal and then
Wangaratta
Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census.
The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...
in rural Victoria.
His father taught English and mathematics at the local technical school; his mother was a librarian at the high school that Cave attended.
From an early age, Cave's father read him literary classics, such as ''
Crime and Punishment'' (1866) and ''
Lolita
''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...
'' (1955),
and also organised the first
symposium on the Australian
bushranger
Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
and outlaw
Ned Kelly
Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...
, with whom Cave was enamoured as a child.
[Lynskey, Dorian (24 February 2006)]
"Outback outlaws"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 2 March 2013. Through his older brother, Cave became a fan of British
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
bands such as
King Crimson
King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...
,
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
and
Jethro Tull, while a childhood girlfriend introduced him to the Canadian
folk artist
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
, who he later described as "the greatest songwriter of them all".
When Cave was nine he joined the choir of Wangaratta's
Holy Trinity Cathedral.
At 13 he was expelled from
Wangaratta High School,
and sent by his parents to
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
to become a boarder and later day student at
Caulfield Grammar School.
His family moved to Melbourne the following year, settling in the suburb of
Murrumbeena. After his secondary schooling, Cave studied painting at the
Caulfield Institute of Technology in 1976, but dropped out the following year to pursue music.
He also began using
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
around the time that he left art school.
Cave attended his first music concert at Melbourne's
Festival Hall. The bill consisted of the English rock bands
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. They were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group had two l ...
,
Deep Purple and
Free. Cave recalled: "I remember sitting there and feeling physically the sound going through me."
In early 1977, he saw the Australian
punk rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
bands
Radio Birdman and
the Saints live for the first time. Cave was particularly inspired by the show of the latter band, saying that he left the venue "a different person."
Cave was 19 when his father was killed in a car collision; his mother told him of his father's death while she was bailing him out of a
St Kilda police station where he was being held on a charge of burglary.
[
]
He would later recall that his father "died at a point in my life when I was most confused" and that "the loss of my father created in my life a vacuum, a space in which my words began to float and collect and find their purpose".
[Maume, Chris.]
Nick Cave: Devil's advocate
, ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. Retrieved on 10 November 2008.
Music career
Early years and the Birthday Party (1973–1983)
In 1973, Cave founded a band with fellow students at Caulfield Grammar. With Cave as lead vocalist, the band included
Mick Harvey (guitar),
Phill Calvert (drums), John Cochivera (guitar), Brett Purcell (bass guitar), and Chris Coyne (saxophone). Their repertoire consisted of cover versions of songs by
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
,
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
,
Alice Cooper,
Roxy Music
Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry (lead vocals/keyboards/principal songwriter) and Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson (bass). By the time the band recorded their Roxy Music (album), first albu ...
and
Alex Harvey, among others. Later, the line-up slimmed down to four members including Cave's friend
Tracy Pew on bass guitar. In 1977, after leaving school, they adopted the name the Boys Next Door and began playing predominantly original
punk rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
material. Guitarist, songwriter and ex-
Young Charlatans member
Rowland S. Howard joined the band in 1978.

The Boys Next Door emerged as the linchpin of the Melbourne
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
scene in the late 1970s, securing a residency at
St Kilda's
Crystal Ballroom venue, where they attracted a
cult following.
[Walker, Clinton (2009). "Planting Seeds". In Dalziell, Tanya; Welberry, Karen (ed.). ''Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave''. ]Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research and Dovepress. It i ...
. pp. 31–46. ISBN 9780754663959. They played hundreds of live shows in Australia and toured interstate before changing their name to the Birthday Party in 1980 and moving to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England. Cave's girlfriend and muse
Anita Lane accompanied the band. They struggled initially with financial instability and limited connections, and grew to detest London and much of its music scene, which Cave later described as "dead, ... we felt really ripped off, robbed". He did however greatly admire
the Pop Group, and the Birthday Party shared a mutual affinity with
the Fall.
By the end of their first year in London, the Birthday Party had gained notoriety for their aggressive, confrontational live shows and Cave's unhinged stage presence, with him shrieking, bellowing and throwing himself about the stage, backed up by harsh pounding rock music laced with guitar feedback. Drawing on
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
imagery, Cave's lyrics frequently revolved around sin, debauchery and damnation.
The band found a champion in prominent radio DJ and taste-maker
John Peel, and went on to record four
Peel Sessions.
Cave's droll sense of humour and penchant for parody is evident in many of the band's songs, including "Nick the Stripper" and "
King Ink". "
Release the Bats", one of the band's most famous songs and John Peel's single of the year in 1981, was intended as an over-the-top "
piss-take" on
gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...
, and a "direct attack" on the "stock gothic associations that less informed critics were wont to make". Ironically, it became highly influential on the genre, giving rise to a new generation of bands in England.
The Birthday Party relocated to
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
in 1982. After establishing a
cult following in Europe, Australia and the United States, they disbanded in the following year.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1984–present)

The band with Cave as their lead vocalist has released eighteen studio albums. ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials.
The term is also applie ...
'' calls the group one of rock's "most enduring, redoubtable" bands, with an accomplished discography. Though their sound tends to change considerably from one album to another, the one constant of the band is an unpolished blending of disparate genres, and song structures which provide a vehicle for Cave's virtuosic, frequent histrionics. Critics
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
and Steve Huey wrote: "With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk."

Reviewing the band's fourteenth studio album ''
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'' (2008), ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' used the phrase "
gothic psycho-sexual apocalypse" to describe the "menace" present in the lyrics of the title track. Their most recent work, ''
Wild God'', was released in August 2024.
In a September 2013 interview, Cave explained that he returned to using a
typewriter
A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...
for songwriting after his experience with their twelfth studio album ''
Nocturama'' (2003), as he "could walk in on a bad day and hit 'delete' and that was the end of it". Cave believes that he lost valuable work due to a "bad day".
Grinderman (2006–2010)

In 2006, Cave formed Grinderman with himself on vocals, guitar, organ and piano,
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
(
tenor guitar, electric mandolin, violin, viola, guitar, backing vocals),
Martyn P. Casey (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and
Jim Sclavunos (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The alternative rock outfit was formed as "a way to escape the weight of the Bad Seeds". The band's name was inspired by a
Memphis Slim song, "Grinder Man Blues", which Cave is noted to have started singing during one of the band's early rehearsal sessions. The band's debut studio album, ''
Grinderman'', was released in 2007 to positive reviews and the band's second and final studio album, ''
Grinderman 2'', was released in 2010 to a similar reception.
Grinderman's first public performance was at
All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2007, where
Bobby Gillespie from
Primal Scream accompanied Grinderman on backing vocals and percussion.
In December 2011, after performing at the
Meredith Music Festival, Cave announced that Grinderman was over. Two years later, Grinderman performed both weekends at the 2013
Coachella Festival, as did Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Music in film and television
Cave's music was featured in a scene of the 1986 film, ''
Dogs in Space'' by Richard Lowenstein. Cave performed parts of the Boys Next Door song "
Shivers" twice during the film, once on video and once live.
Another early fan of Cave's was German director
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...
, who lists Cave, along with
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
and
Portishead, as among his favourites. Cave and the Bad Seeds appear in the 1987 film ''
Wings of Desire'' performing "
The Carny" and "
From Her to Eternity". Two original songs were included in Wenders' 1993 sequel ''
Faraway, So Close!'', including the title track. The soundtrack for Wenders' 1991 film ''
Until the End of the World'' features, another Cave original, "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World". Cave and the Bad Seeds later recorded a live in-studio cover track for Wenders' 2003 documentary ''
The Soul of a Man'', and his 2008 film ''
Palermo Shooting'' features two original songs from Cave's side project Grinderman.
Cave's songs have also appeared in a number of
Hollywood blockbusters – "There is a Light" appears on the 1995 soundtrack for ''
Batman Forever'', and "
Red Right Hand" appeared in a number of films including ''
Dumb and Dumber'' (1994), ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
'' (1998); ''
Scream'' (1996), its sequels ''
Scream 2'' (1997) and ''
3'' (2000), and ''
Hellboy'' (2004; performed by
Pete Yorn). In ''
Scream 3'', the song was given a reworking with Cave writing new lyrics and adding an orchestra to the arrangement of the track. "People Ain't No Good" was featured in ''
Shrek 2'' (2004). ''
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' (2010) music supervisor Matt Biffa chose to use Cave's "
O Children" in the film because it was "really uplifting".
In 2000,
Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik (born 7 October 1967) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the crime film '' Chopper'' (2000), the Western drama film '' The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' (2007), the neo-n ...
used "Release the Bats" in his film ''
Chopper''. Other films that use Cave's songs include ''
The Freshman'' (1990), ''
Gas Food Lodging'' (1992), ''
Box of Moonlight'' (1996), ''
Kevin & Perry Go Large'' (2000), ''
Mr In-Between'' (2001), ''
Romance & Cigarettes'' (2005), ''
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant'' (2009) and ''
About Time'' (2013).
His music also appear in a number of major television shows, including ''
Trauma'', ''
The L Word'', ''
Traveler'', ''
The Unit'', ''
I Love the '70s'', ''
The Others'', ''
Nip/Tuck'', ''
Californication'', ''
After Life'' and ''
Jack Irish''. "Red Right Hand" is the theme song for ''
Peaky Blinders'', which also features cover versions by artists such as his ex-partner
PJ Harvey,
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. They comprise lead singer Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley. The co-founder and original bassist Andy Nicholson ...
,
Laura Marling
Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is an English Folk music, folk singer-songwriter. She won the Brit Award for Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist, Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for th ...
,
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...
and
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...
of
Pulp,
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
and
Anna Calvi
Anna Margaret Michelle Calvi (born 24 September 1980) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her accolades include three Mercury Prize nominations, one Brit Awards, Brit Award nomination, and a European Border Breakers Award. She has b ...
. In a 2019 interview with ''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...
'',
Cillian Murphy, who plays
Tommy Shelby in ''Peaky Blinders'', mentioned that Cave personally approved the use of the song for the series after watching a pre-screening of the show.
Collaborations
1980–2000
During the 1982 recording sessions for the Birthday Party's third studio album ''
Junkyard'', Cave, together with band-mates Harvey and Howard, joined members of
the Go-Betweens
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster (musician), Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only co ...
to form
Tuff Monks. The short-lived band released one single, "After the Fireworks", and played live only once. Later that year, Cave contributed to the concept album ''
Honeymoon in Red''. Intended as a collaboration between the Birthday Party and
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...
, the album was not released until 1988, by which time Lunch had fallen out with Cave, who she credits on the release as "Anonymous", "Her Dead Twin" and "A Drunk Cowboy Junkie".
[Walker, Clinton (1984). ''The Next Thing''. Kangaroo Press. . p. 14.]
During the Birthday Party's Berlin period, Cave collaborated with local post-punk and
post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...
band
Die Haut on their studio album ''
Burnin' the Ice'', released in 1983. In the immediate aftermath of the Birthday Party's break-up, Cave performed several shows in the United States as part of
the Immaculate Consumptive, a short-lived "
super-group" with Lunch,
Marc Almond and
Clint Ruin.
Cave sang on an
Annie Hogan song called "Vixo" which was recorded in October 1983: the track was released in 1985 on the 12" inch vinyl "Annie Hogan – Plays Kickabye".

A lifelong fan of
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
, Cave covered his song "The Singer", originally "
The Folk Singer", for the studio album ''
Kicking Against the Pricks'' (1986), which Cash seemingly repaid by covering "The Mercy Seat" on ''
American III: Solitary Man'' (2000). Cave was then invited to contribute to the liner notes of the double-compact disc compilation album ''
The Essential Johnny Cash'', released to coincide with Cash's 70th birthday. Subsequently, Cave recorded a duet with Cash, a cover version of
Hank Williams
Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
' "
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", for what would be Cash's final studio album, ''
American IV: The Man Comes Around'' (2002). Another duet between the two artists, the American folk song "
Cindy", was released posthumously on ''
Unearthed'', a boxset of outtakes. Cave's song "Let the Bells Ring", released on the studio album ''
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus'' (2004), is a posthumous tribute to Cash.

Cave played with
Shane MacGowan on cover versions of
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
's "Death is Not the End" and
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
's "
What a Wonderful World". Cave recorded a cover version of
the Pogues
The Pogues are an English Celtic punk band founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, by Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacy and Jem Finer. Originally named Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish phrase :wikt:póg mo thóin, ''p� ...
' song "
Rainy Night in Soho", written by MacGowan. MacGowan also sings a version of "Lucy", released on ''
B-Sides & Rarities'' (2005). Cave provided guest vocals on the title track of
Current 93's studio album ''
All the Pretty Little Horses'' (1996), as well as the closer "Patripassian". For his studio album ''
Murder Ballads'' (1996), Cave recorded "
Where the Wild Roses Grow" with
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...
, and "
Henry Lee" with
PJ Harvey.
Cave also took part in ''The X-Files'' compilation CD with some other artists, where he reads parts from the Bible combined with own texts, like "Time Jesum ...", he outed himself as a fan of the series some years ago, but since he does not watch much TV, it was one of the only things he watched.
2000–present (as of 2025)
In 2004, Cave gave a hand to
Marianne Faithfull on her sixteenth studio album, ''
Before the Poison''. He co-wrote and produced three songs ("Crazy Love", "There Is a Ghost" and "Desperanto"), and the Bad Seeds are featured on all of them. He is also featured on "The Crane Wife 3" (originally by
the Decemberists
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. The band consists of Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals ...
), on Faithfull's seventeenth studio album, ''
Easy Come, Easy Go'' (2008).
He collaborated on the 2003 single "Bring It On", with
Chris Bailey, formerly of the Australian punk group,
the Saints. Cave contributed vocals to the song "Sweet Rosyanne", on the studio album ''Catch That Train!'' (2006) by Dan Zanes & Friends, a children's music group.
In 2010, Cave began a series of duets with
Debbie Harry of
Blondie for ''
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project''.
In 2011, Cave recorded a cover version of
the Zombies' "
She's Not There" with
Neko Case, which was used at the end of the first episode of the fourth season of ''
True Blood''.
In 2014, Cave wrote the libretto for the opera ''
Shell Shock'' by the Belgian composer
Nicholas Lens. The opera premiered at the Royal Opera House
La Monnaie in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
on 24 October 2014
and was also set up at the international Weekend of War and Peace,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 10 and 11 November 2018 performed by L'
Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France at
Cité de la Musique (
Philharmonie de Paris) with live television broadcasting on
Arte
Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...
and
France Musique.
In 2020, Cave wrote the libretto for ''
L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S'', a trance-minimal chamber opera by
Nicholas Lens. A recording produced by both writers was released by
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
.
In 2004, Cave said: "I'm forever near a stereo saying, 'What the fuck is this garbage?' And the answer is always the
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, consisting of Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (musician), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of a ...
." The line is widely quoted in discourse around the band; their bassist,
Flea
Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...
, a fan of Cave, wrote that it had hurt him. In 2025, Cave wrote an apology on his website, saying it was "an offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark" with "no malice intended", and announced that he had recently contributed to a record by Flea.
Film scores and theatre music
Cave creates original film scores with fellow Bad Seeds band member
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
—they first teamed up in 2005 to work on Hillcoat's
bushranger
Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
film ''
The Proposition'', for which Cave also wrote the screenplay.
In 2007, Cave and Ellis composed the music for
Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik (born 7 October 1967) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the crime film '' Chopper'' (2000), the Western drama film '' The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' (2007), the neo-n ...
's adaptation of
Ron Hansen's ''
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford''. By the time Dominik's film was released, Hillcoat was preparing his next project, ''
The Road'', an adaptation of
Cormac McCarthy's
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
about a father and son struggling to survive in a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...
world. Cave and Ellis wrote and recorded the score for the film, which was released in 2009. In 2011, Cave and Ellis reunited with Hillcoat to score his latest picture, ''
Lawless''. Cave also authored this screenplay based on
Matt Bondurant's novel ''
The Wettest County in the World'' (2008). Set in Depression-era
Franklin County, Virginia, the film was released in 2012.
In 2016, Cave and Ellis scored the neo-Western film ''
Hell or High Water'', directed by
David Mackenzie. The following year, they scored
Taylor Sheridan's neo-Western ''
Wind River'', as well as Australian director
David Michôd's ''
War Machine''.
Cave and Ellis have also scored a number of documentary films, including ''
The English Surgeon'' (2007), ''
West of Memphis'' (2012), ''
Prophet's Prey'' (2015) and ''
The Velvet Queen'' (2021). Cave and Ellis created music for the Icelandic theatre group
Vesturport productions ''
Woyzeck'', ''
The Metamorphosis'' and ''
Faust''.
Writing
Cave released his first book, ''King Ink'', in 1988. It is a collection of lyrics and plays, including collaborations with
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...
. This was followed up with ''King Ink II'' in 1997, containing lyrics, poems, and the transcript of a radio essay he wrote for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
in July 1996, "The Flesh Made Word", discussing in biographical format his relationship with Christianity.

While he was based in
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
, Cave started working on what was to become his debut novel, ''
And the Ass Saw the Angel'' (1989). Significant crossover is evident between the
themes in the book and the lyrics Cave wrote in the late stages of the Birthday Party and the early stage of his solo career. "Swampland", from ''Mutiny'', in particular, uses the same linguistic stylings ('mah' for 'my', for instance) and some of the same themes (the narrator being haunted by the memory of a girl called Lucy, being hunted like an animal, approaching death and execution).
In 1993, Cave and
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...
published an adult comic book they wrote together, with illustrations by Mike Matthews, titled ''AS-FIX-E-8''.
On 21 January 2008, a special edition of Cave's novel ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'' was released. Cave's second novel ''
The Death of Bunny Munro'' was published on 8 September 2009 by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
. Telling the story of a sex-addicted salesman, it was also released as a
binaural audio-book produced by British Artists
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and an
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
app. The book originally started as a screenplay Cave was going to write for
John Hillcoat.
In 2015 he released the book ''The Sick Bag Song'', followed in 2022 by ''
Faith, Hope, and Carnage'', collected from a series of phone conversations conducted between Cave and Irish writer
Sean O'Hagan during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Contributions
Aside from their soundtracks, Cave also wrote the screenplays for
John Hillcoat's ''
The Proposition'' (2005) and ''
Lawless'' (2012).
Cave wrote the foreword to a
Canongate publication of the ''
Gospel According to Mark'', published in the UK in 1998. The American edition of the same book (published by
Grove Press) contains a foreword by the noted American writer
Barry Hannah.
Cave was a contributor to a biography of the alternative rock and pop band
the Triffids, ''Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids'' (2009), edited by Australian academics
Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran.
Acting
Cave's first film appearance was in
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...
' 1987 film ''
Wings of Desire'', in which he and the Bad Seeds are shown performing at a concert in Berlin.
Cave has made occasional appearances as an actor. He appears alongside
Blixa Bargeld in the 1988 Peter Sempel film ''Dandy'', playing dice, singing and speaking from his Berlin apartment. He is most prominently featured in the 1989 film ''
Ghosts… of the Civil Dead'', written and directed by
John Hillcoat, and in the 1991 film ''
Johnny Suede'' with
Brad Pitt.
Cave appeared in the 2005 homage to
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
, ''
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'', in which he performed "
I'm Your Man" solo, and "
Suzanne" with
Julie Christensen and
Perla Batalla
Perla Batalla (born 1964) is an American vocalist, composer and arranger who first gained international attention as a backup singer for Leonard Cohen before embarking on a solo career at his encouragement. Her debut album, ''Perla Batalla'' ...
. He also appeared in the 2007 film adaptation of Ron Hansen's novel ''
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'', where he sings "
The Ballad of Jesse James". Cave and Warren Ellis are credited for the film's soundtrack. Nick Cave and his son Luke performed one of the songs on the soundtrack together. Luke played the triangle.
His interest in the work of
Edward Gorey led to his participation in the
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
programme ''Guest + Host = Ghost'', featuring
Peter Blegvad and the radiophonic sound of the
Langham Research Centre.
Cave lent his voice in narrating the animated film ''
The Cat Piano'' (2009). It was directed by
Eddie White and Ari Gibson (of
the People's Republic of Animation), produced by Jessica Brentnall and features music by
Benjamin Speed.
He provided the voice of the character Bill Clarke in the stop-motion film ''
Memoir of a Snail'' (2024) by
Adam Elliot.
Screenwriting

Cave wrote the screenplay for ''
The Proposition'', a film about
bushranger
Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
s in the Australian
outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...
during the late 19th century. Directed by John Hillcoat and filmed in
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
in 2004, it premiered in October 2005 and was later released worldwide to critical acclaim. Cave explained his personal background in relation to writing the film's screenplay in a 2013 interview:
I had written long-form before but it is pure story-telling in script writing and that goes back as far as I can remember for me, not just with my father but with myself. I slept in the same bedroom as my sister for many years, until it became indecent to do so and I would tell her stories every night—that is how she would get to sleep. She would say "tell me a story" so I would tell her a story. So that ability, I very much had that from the start and I used to enjoy that at school so actually to write a script—it suddenly felt like I was just making up a big story.
The film critic for British newspaper ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' called ''The Proposition'' "peerless", "a star-studded and uncompromisingly violent outlaw film". The generally
ambient soundtrack was recorded by Cave and Warren Ellis.
At the request of his friend
Russell Crowe, Cave wrote a script for a proposed sequel to ''
Gladiator'' which was rejected by the studio.
An announcement in February 2010 stated that
Andy Serkis and Cave would collaborate on a motion-capture movie of the
Brecht and
Weill musical ''
The Threepenny Opera
''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...
''. As of November 2024, the project has not been realised.
Cave wrote a screenplay titled ''The Wettest County in the World'',
which was used for the 2012 film ''
Lawless'', directed again by John Hillcoat, starring
Tom Hardy and
Shia LaBeouf.
Blogging
Cave currently maintains a personal blog and an online correspondence page with his fans called ''The Red Hand Files'' which is seen as a continuation of ''In Conversation,'' a series of live personal talks Cave had held in which the audience were free to ask questions. On the page, Cave discusses various issues ranging from art, religion, current affairs and music, as well as using it as a free platform in which fans are encouraged to ask personal questions on any topic of their choosing.
Cave's intimate approach to the Question & Answer format on ''The Red Hand Files'' was praised by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' as "a shelter from the online storm free of discord and conspiracies, and in harmony with the internet vision of
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...
."
In January 2023, after being sent a song written by
ChatGPT "in the style of Nick Cave",
he responded on ''The Red Hand Files'' (and was later quoted in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'') saying that act of song writing "is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite, it is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past." He went on to say "It's a blood and guts business
hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
requires my humanness", concluding that "this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human, and, well, I don't much like it."
Legacy and influence
In 2010, Cave was ranked the 19th greatest living lyricist in ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
''.
Flea
Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...
of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, consisting of Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (musician), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of a ...
called him the greatest living songwriter in 2011. Rob O'Connor of
Yahoo Music listed him as the 23rd best lyricist in rock history. ''The Art of Nick Cave: New Critical Essays'' was edited by academic John H. Baker and published in 2013. In an essay on the studio album ''
The Boatman's Call'' (1997), Peter Billingham praised Cave's love songs as characterised by a "deep, poetic, melancholic introspection". Carl Lavery, another academic featured in the collection, argued that there was a "burgeoning field of Cave studies". Dan Rose argued that Cave "is a master of the disturbing narrative and chronicler of the extreme, though he is also certainly capable of a subtle romantic vision. He does much to the listener who enters his world."
Songs written about Cave include "Just a King in Mirrors" (1983) by
the Go-Betweens
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster (musician), Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only co ...
, "Sick Man" (1984) by
Foetus
A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a ...
, and "Bill Bailey" (1987) by
the Gun Club.
A number of prominent
noise rock
Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...
vocalists have cited Cave's Birthday Party-era work as their primary influence, including
the U-Men's John Bigley, and
David Yow, frontman of
Scratch Acid and
the Jesus Lizard. Yow stated: "For a long time, particularly with Scratch Acid, I was so taken with the Birthday Party that I would deny it", and that "it sounded like I was trying to be Birthday Party Nick Cave—which I was." Often compared to Cave in his vocal delivery,
Alexis Marshall of
Daughters said that he admires the personality and energy within Cave's voice, and that his early studio albums "exposed
imto lyrical content as literature".
Personal life
Cave left Australia in 1980. After stints living in London, Berlin, and São Paulo, he moved to
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, England, in the early 2000s.
The film ''
20,000 Days on Earth'' (2014), about Cave's life, is set around Brighton.
In 2017, Cave reportedly told ''
GQ'' magazine that he and his family were considering moving from Brighton to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
as, after the death of his 15-year-old son, Arthur, they "just find it too difficult to live here."
In November 2021, while answering a question on ''The Red Hand Files'' which was referencing the song "Heart That Kills You" (from the compilation album ''
B-Sides & Rarities Part II'') Cave stated, "The words of the song go someway toward articulating why Susie and I moved from Brighton to L.A. Brighton had just become too sad. We did, however, return once we realised that, regardless of where we lived, we just took our sadness with us. These days, though, we spend much of our time in London, in a tiny, secret, pink house, where we are mostly happy."
Cave was a guest at the
Coronation of Charles III and Camilla
The Coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, Camilla, as Monarchy of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth re ...
in May 2023.
In June 2023, in ''The Archbishop Interview'' with
Justin Welby, the
archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
, Cave spoke about being a
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
addict for 20 years. Although his life during that time was admittedly "a terrible shambles", his second decade of addiction was much more stable and characterised by regularly taking heroin in the morning and in the evening and being able to work on writing during the day.
On his blog, Cave discussed practicing
Transcendental Meditation (TM), saying "from the first time I meditated, I stopped fearing the end of the world." In 2025 he disclosed that he regularly attends a 900-year old
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
church in London where he enjoys the traditional solemn liturgy "with no guitars. Thank God."
Partners and children
Cave dated singer/songwriter
Anita Lane from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Cave and Lane recorded together on a few occasions. Their most notable collaborations include Lane's "cameo" verse on Cave's
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
cover version "
Death Is Not the End" from the studio album ''
Murder Ballads'' (1996), and a cover of the
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...
and
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin ( ; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British and French actress, singer, and designer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, ...
song "
Je t'aime... moi non plus/ I love you ... me neither". Lane co-wrote the lyrics to the title track for Cave's studio album, ''
From Her to Eternity'' (1984), as well as the lyrics of the song "Stranger Than Kindness" from ''
Your Funeral... My Trial'' (1986).
Cave then moved to
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, Brazil, in 1990, where he met and married his first wife, Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro. She gave birth to their son Luke in 1991. Cave and Carneiro were married for six years and divorced in 1996.
Cave's son Jethro was also born in 1991, just 10 days before Luke, and grew up with his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Melbourne, Australia. Cave and Jethro never met until Jethro was about seven or eight. He died at age 31 in May 2022.
Cave briefly dated English singer/songwriter
PJ Harvey during the mid-1990s, with whom he recorded the duet "
Henry Lee". Their break-up influenced his studio album ''
The Boatman's Call'' (1997).
In 1997, Cave met English model
Susie Bick; they married in 1999. Their twin sons, Arthur and
Earl
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...
, were born in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 2000 and raised in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
. Bick is the model on the cover of Cave's studio album ''
Push the Sky Away'' (2013).
When he was 15 years old, Cave's son Arthur fell from a cliff at
Ovingdean, near Brighton, and died from his injuries on 14 July 2015.
An inquest found that Arthur had taken
LSD before the fall and the coroner ruled his death was an accident. The effect of Arthur's death on Cave and his family was explored in the documentary film ''
One More Time with Feeling'' (2016), and the studio album ''
Ghosteen'' (2019).
Cave is the godfather to
Michael Hutchence's daughter
Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof;
he performed "
Into My Arms" at the televised funeral of Hutchence, but insisted that the cameras cease rolling during his performance.
[
]
Religion
Cave is an avid reader of the Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
. In his recorded lectures on music and songwriting, Cave said that any true love song is a song for God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
, and ascribed the mellowing of his music to a shift in focus from the Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
to the New. When asked if he had interest in religions outside of Christianity, Cave quipped that he had a passing, sceptical interest but was a "hammer-and-nails kind of guy". Despite this, Cave has also said he is critical of organised religion. When interviewed by Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...
of Pulp on 12September 2010, for his BBC Radio6 show ''Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service'', Cave said that "I believe in God in spite of religion, not because of it."
Cave has always been open about his doubts. When asked in 2009 about whether he believed in a personal god, Cave's reply was "No". The following year, he stated that "I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god. It's kind of defending the indefensible, though; I'm critical of what religions are becoming, the more destructive they're becoming. But I think as an artist, particularly, it's a necessary part of what I do, that there is some divine element going on within my songs."
Cave's religious doubts were once a source of discomfort to him, but he eventually concluded:
In 2019, Cave expressed his personal disagreement with both organised religion and atheism (in particular New Atheism) when questioned about his beliefs by a fan during a question and answer session on his ''Red Hand Files'' blog. On the same blog, Cave confirmed he believed in God in June 2021. By 2023, Cave characterised himself as not being a Christian but 'act nglike one' and detailed in his 2022 book '' Faith, Hope, and Carnage'' that he regularly attends church.
In 2023, Cave wrote on his blog that he had sympathised with feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali's conversion from Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
to atheism after reading her book '' Infidel: My Life'' (2006), and had also considered himself an atheist. However, he described his growing interest in religion as a "slowly emergent state" and shaped by his upbringing in the Anglican church
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
. He also clarified his view on Christianity was "non-political and fully personal and emotional" and described his religious beliefs as "bound up in the liturgy and the ritual and the poetry that swirls around the restless, tortured figure of Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, as presented within the sacred domain of the church itself. My religiousness is softly spoken, both sorrowful and joyful, broadening and deepening, imagined and true. It is worship and prayer. It is resilient yet doubting, and forever wrestles with the forces of rationality." He concluded by describing Hirsi Ali's 2023 article in '' UnHerd'' documenting her conversion to Christianity as a "laudable achievement" for its ability to "vex atheists and Christians alike."
Politics
In 2019, Cave wrote in defence of singer Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey ( ; born 22 May 1959), known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 198 ...
of the Smiths
The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
after the latter expressed a series of controversial political statements, leading to some record stores refusing to stock his upcoming album '' California Son.'' Cave argued that Morrissey should have the right to freedom of speech to state his opinions while everyone should be able to "challenge them when and wherever possible, but allow his music to live on, bearing in mind we are all conflicted individuals." He also added it would be "dangerous" to censor Morrissey from expressing his beliefs.
In response to a fan asking about his political beliefs, Cave expressed a disdain for "atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...
, organised religion, radical bi-partisan politics and woke culture" on his ''Red Hand Files'' blog. He in particular singled out woke politics and culture for criticism, describing it as "finding energy in self-righteous belief and the suppression of contrary systems of thought" and "regardless of the virtuous intentions of many woke issues, it is its lack of humility and the paternalistic and doctrinal sureness of its claims that repel me." In 2020, Cave also expressed opposition to ostracism
Ostracism (, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often us ...
, particularly cancel culture
Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...
, and misguided political correctness, describing both as "bad religion run amuck" and their "refusal to engage with uncomfortable ideas has an asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society."
Cave has previously described himself as a supporter of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
in both his live ''In Conversation'' events and on his blog. He has also argued against boycotting musicians for controversial actions or political opinions while giving a lecture at the Hay Festival
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was d ...
in 2023, saying that audiences should not "eradicate the best of these people in order to punish the worst of them."
In October 2022, Cave expressed support for the participants of the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran on his correspondence blog after being asked by a fan on the matter. He responded by stating "I am in awe of their courage and pray for their safety."
Cave has also expressed support for trans people, stating on his personal blog that he " ovesmy trans fans fully" and " ishesfor them to receive every right inherent to them and for them to lead lives of dignity and freedom, devoid of violence and prejudice".
In 2023, Cave disputed a characterisation of him as right-wing
Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...
or conservative by the ''New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' magazine but added "I have these days what I would call a conservative temperament" and described himself as " conservative with a small c." He also clarified he was "not against progress" but "I just see things moving very rapidly and a whole lot of different things worry me a lot, like AI" and expressed criticism of the idea "that everything is systemically fucked". He also stated that his small-c conservative views had formed following the deaths of two of his sons, explaining "I think that I have an understanding of loss and what it is to lose something and how difficult it is to get that back" and argued that the demise of religion and spirituality "which may or may not be a good thing" had led to a "vacuum that we created that we don't really know what to do with".
Israel and BDS
In November 2017, Cave was urged by British musicians Brian Eno
Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...
and Roger Waters
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became ...
to cancel two concerts in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, Israel, while "apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
remains" but he declined. Cave went on to describe the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as "cowardly and shameful", and that calls to boycott the country are "partly the reason I am playing Israel – not as support for any particular political entity but as a principled stand against those who wish to bully, shame and silence musicians." He wrote an open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to Eno to defend his position.
In 2024, when asked by a musician on Cave's The Red Hand Files whether they should boycott The Great Escape Festival over its ties to Barclays
Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...
, which increased investments in arms companies trading with Israel, he responded with "play". He believes that the BDS movement has been ineffective and is also "used to further he Israeli government'snefarious agendas, while, at the same time, punishes ordinary fans."
Discography
; Studio albums
* '' Carnage'' (with Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
) (2021)
Publications
Publications by Cave
* '' King Ink'' (1988)
* '' And the Ass Saw the Angel'' (1989)
* '' King Ink II'' (1997)
* ''Complete Lyrics'' (2001)
* ''The Complete Lyrics: 1978–2006'' (2007)
* '' The Death of Bunny Munro'' (2009)
* '' The Sick Bag Song'' (2015)
* ''Stranger Than Kindness'', Nick Cave, Christina Beck, Darcey Steinke (2020)
* ''The Little Thing'', Nick Cave (2021)
* '' Faith, Hope, and Carnage'', Nick Cave, Sean O'Hagan (2022)
Publications with contributions by Cave
* ''The Gospel According to Mark.'' Pocket Canons: Series 1. Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Scotland: Canongate, 1998. . UK edition. With an introduction by Cave to the Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels, synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from baptism of Jesus, his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the Burial of Jesus, ...
.
Films
* '' 20,000 Days on Earth'' (2014) – co-written and directed by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard; Cave also co-wrote the script with Forsyth and Pollard
* '' One More Time with Feeling'' (2016) – directed by Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik (born 7 October 1967) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the crime film '' Chopper'' (2000), the Western drama film '' The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' (2007), the neo-n ...
* ''I Want Everything'' (2020) – short documentary by Paul Szynol about Larry Sloman, who records a tribute to Cave's son Arthur. Cave makes an appearance.
* '' Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace'' (2020) – concert film
* '' This Much I Know to Be True'' (2022) – directed by Andrew Dominik
Exhibitions
* ''Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds European Tour 1992'', Arts Centre Melbourne
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
(then known as the Victorian Arts Centre), Melbourne, 4 December 1992 – 26 February 1993. A photographic exhibition by Peter Milne.
* ''Nick Cave: The Exhibition'', Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, November 2007. Exhibition based on the Nick Cave collection at Australian Performing Arts Collection. Later toured nationally.
* ''Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition'', Royal Danish Library
Royal Danish Library () is a merger of the two previous national libraries in Denmark: the State and University Library in Aarhus and the Royal Library in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, wit ...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, Denmark, June 2020. The exhibition shows Cave's life and work and was co-curated by him.
* ''We'', Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere
Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...
, Finland. September 2022 – January 2023. The exhibition shows 17 of Cave's hand-crafted ceramic figurines depicting Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
.
Awards and honours
APRA Music Awards
The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association
APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...
(APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". They commenced in 1982.
!
, -
, 1994
The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
, " Do You Love Me?"
, Song of the Year
,
, rowspan=5,
, -
, rowspan=3, 1996
, Nick Cave
, Songwriter of the Year
,
, -
, rowspan=2, " Where the Wild Roses Grow"
, Most Performed Australian Work
,
, -
, rowspan=2, Song of the Year
,
, -
, 1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, " Into My Arms"
,
, -
, 2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
, " The Ship Song"
, Top 30 Best Australian Songs
,
,
, -
, rowspan=2, 2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
, " Jubilee Street" (with Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
)
, rowspan=2, Song of the Year
,
, rowspan=2,
, -
, " We No Who U R" (with Warren Ellis)
,
, -
, 2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
, "Ghosteen" (with Warren Ellis)
, Song of the Year
,
,
, -
, 2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, "Albuquerque" (with Warren Ellis)
, Song of the Year
,
,
, -
, 2025
So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...
, "Wild God" (with Warren Ellis)
, Song of the Year
,
,
, -
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
! Ref.
, -
, rowspan=2, 1995
, '' Let Love In''
, Best Group
,
, rowspan=2,
, -
, "Do You Love Me?"
, Single of the Year
,
, -
, rowspan=5, 1996
, rowspan=2, '' Murder Ballads''
, Album of the Year
,
, rowspan=5, [
, -
, Best Alternative Release
,
, -
, rowspan=3, " Where the Wild Roses Grow" (with ]Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...
)
, Song of the Year
,
, -
, Single of the Year
,
, -
, Best Pop Release
,
, -
, rowspan=5, 1997
Events January
* January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.
* January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
* January 1 ...
, rowspan=2, '' The Boatman's Call''
, Album of the Year
,
, rowspan=5, [
, -
, Best Alternative Release
,
, -
, rowspan=2, " Into My Arms"
, Song of the Year
,
, -
, Single of the Year
,
, -
, '' To Have and to Hold'' (Nick Cave with Blixa Bargeld & Mick Harvey)
, Best Original Soundtrack / Cast / Show Recording
,
, -
, ]2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
, '' No More Shall We Part''
, Best Male Artist (Nick Cave)
,
,
, -
, rowspan=2, 2003
2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater.
In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War.
Demographic ...
, rowspan=2, '' Nocturama''
, Best Male Artist (Nick Cave)
,
, rowspan=2, [
, -
, Best Rock Album
,
, -
, 2006
, '' The Proposition'' (Nick Cave with Warren Ellis)
, Best Original Soundtrack / Cast / Show Recording
,
, ][ARIA Award previous winners. ]
, -
, 2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
, Nick Cave
, ARIA Hall of Fame
,
, -
, rowspan=3, 2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
, rowspan=3, '' Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!''
, Album of the Year
,
, rowspan=3,
, -
, Best Male Artist (Cave)
,
, -
, Best Rock Album
,
, -
, rowspan=7, 2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
, rowspan=4, '' Push the Sky Away''
, Album of the Year
,
, rowspan=7,
, -
, Best Group
,
, -
, Best Independent Release
,
, -
, Best Adult Contemporary Album
,
, -
, "Jubilee Street" (directed by John Hillcoat)
, Best Video
,
, -
, National Tour
, Best Australian Live Act
,
, -
, '' Lawless'' (with Warren Ellis)
, Best Original Soundtrack / Cast / Show Recording
,
, -
, 2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
, '' Live from KCRW''
, Best Adult Contemporary Album
,
, -
, 2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
, Nick Cave Australian Tour
, Best Australian Live Act
,
, -
, rowspan=3, 2017
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly.
Events January
* January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
, rowspan=2, '' Skeleton Tree''
, Best Group
,
, rowspan=3,
, -
, Best Adult Contemporary Album
,
, -
, Australia & New Zealand Tour 2017
, Best Australian Live Act
,
, -
, rowspan=2, 2020
The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, rowspan=2, '' Ghosteen''
, Best Independent Release
,
, rowspan=2,
, -
, Best Adult Contemporary Album
,
, -
, 2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
, '' Carnage'' (with Warren Ellis)
, Best Adult Contemporary Album
,
,
, -
Australian Music Prize
The Australian Music Prize (the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. It commenced in 2005.
, -
! scope="row", 2021
, ''Carnage'' (with Warren Ellis)
, Australian Music Prize
,
EG Awards / Music Victoria Awards
The EG Awards (known as ''Music Victoria Awards'' since 2013) are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2006.
, -
, 2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
, Nick Cave & Grinderman – Forum Theatre
, Best Tour
,
, -
, rowspan="2", 2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
, ''Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!''
, Best Album
,
, -
, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
, Best Band
,
, -
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
are awarded annually by The Recording Academy
National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...
to honor outstanding achievements in the music industry, and are considered the music industry's highest honor.
!
, -
, 2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
, '' One More Time with Feeling''
, Best Music Film
,
,
, -
, 2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, '' Carnage''
, Best Recording Package
,
,
J Awards
The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
's youth-focused radio station Triple J. They commenced in 2005.
!
, -
, 2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, "Macca the Mutt" by Party Dozen featuring Nick Cave
(directed by Tanya Babic & Jason Sukadana ersus
, Australian Video of the Year
,
,
, -
, 2024
The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...
, Nick Cave
, Double J Artist of the Year
,
,
Other awards
* Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
: (2017) Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) "For distinguished service to the performing arts as a musician, songwriter, author and actor, nationally and internationally, and as a major contributor to Australian music culture and heritage."
* 1990 '' Time Out'' Magazine: Book of the Year ('' And the Ass Saw the Angel'').
* 1996 MTV Europe Music Awards
The MTV Europe Music Awards (originally named MTV European Music Awards, commonly abbreviated as MTV EMA) are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an al ...
: Nick Cave formally requested that his nomination for "Best Male Artist" be withdrawn as he was not comfortable with the "competitive nature" of such awards.
* 2004 Mojo Awards: Best Album of 2004 ('' Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus'').
* 2005 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards
The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of film criticism, cinema critics and film review, reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and fr ...
: Best Musical Score (''The Proposition'').
* 2005 Inside Film Awards: Best Music (''The Proposition'').
* 2005 AFI Awards: Best Original Music Score with Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
('' The Proposition'').
* 2005 Q Awards: Q Classic Songwriter Award.
* 2006 Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
: Gucci Award (for the script to ''The Proposition'').
* 2008 Awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Laws, by Monash University
Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...
.
* 2008 Mojo Awards: Best Album of 2008 (''Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!'').
* 2010 made an honorary Doctor of Laws, by University of Dundee.
* 2011 Mojo Awards: Song of the Year for " Heathen Child" by Grinderman
* 2011 Straight to You – Triple J's tribute tour to Nick Cave for his work in Australian music for Ausmusic Month
* 2012 Doctor of Letters, an honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
from the University of Brighton.
* 2014 International Istanbul Film Festival: International Competition: FIPRESCI Prize for '' 20,000 Days on Earth''
* 2014 Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
: World Cinema Documentary Directing Award & Editing Award for '' 20,000 Days on Earth''
* 2014 Quebec City Film Festival: Grand Prix competition – official feature for '' 20,000 Days on Earth''
* 2014 Athens International Film Festival: Music & Films Competition Golden Athena for '' 20,000 Days on Earth''
* 2014 The Ivor Novello Awards: Best Album award for song writing for '' Push the Sky Away''
* 2014 British Independent Film Awards
The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...
: The Douglas Hickox Award Best Debut Director for '' 20,000 Days on Earth''
* 2015 Cinema Eye Honors: Outstanding Original Music Score for " 20,000 Days on Earth"
* 2022 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
* National Live Music Awards of 2023: Best International Tour in Australia with Warren Ellis
See also
* List of Caulfield Grammar School people
References
Further reading
* ''Bad Seed: A Biography of Nick Cave'', Ian Johnston (1997)
* ''The Life and Music of Nick Cave: An Illustrated Biography'', Maximilian Dax & Johannes Beck (1999)
* Liner notes to the CDs '' Original Seeds: Songs that inspired Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'', Kim Beissel (1998 & 2004), Rubber Records
* ''Kicking Against the Pricks: An Armchair Guide to Nick Cave'', Amy Hanson (2005),
* ''Nick Cave Stories'', Janine Barrand (2007)
* ''Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave'', eds. Karen Welberry and Tanya Dalziell (2009)
* ''Nick Cave Sinner Saint: The True Confessions'', ed. Mat Snow (2011)
*
* ''A Little History: Nick Cave & cohorts 1981–2013'', Bleddyn Butcher (2014)
* ''Nick Cave: Mercy on Me'' (2017), a graphic biography by Reinhard Kleist
* ''Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book'', Reinhard Kliest (2018),
* ''Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave'', Mark Mordue (2020)
External links
*
The Red Hand Files – Nick Cave answers questions from fans
Nick Cave Collection
at th
Performing Arts Collection
Arts Centre Melbourne
Nick Cave Monday at The Rumpus
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cave, Nick
1957 births
Living people
20th-century Australian novelists
20th-century Australian male writers
21st-century Australian novelists
20th-century Australian male singers
21st-century Australian male singers
Australian alternative rock singers
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian baritones
Australian composers
Australian emigrants to England
Australian expatriates in England
Australian expatriates in Germany
Australian male composers
Australian male novelists
Australian multi-instrumentalists
Australian punk rock singers
Punk rock guitarists
Australian rock guitarists
Australian gothic rock musicians
Australian male guitarists
Australian male singer-songwriters
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds members
Noise rock musicians
Australian opera librettists
People educated at Caulfield Grammar School
People from Wangaratta
Post-punk musicians
Singers from Melbourne
People from Warracknabeal
Officers of the Order of Australia
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
The Birthday Party (band) members
The Immaculate Consumptive members
Australian memoirists
20th-century Australian singer-songwriters
21st-century Australian singer-songwriters
Grinderman members
Tuff Monks members