Nick Cave has revealed how he went from being ‘in awe of his own genius’ to feeling ‘disgracefully self-indulgent’ after the tragic death of his two sons.
The n-born Bad Seeds frontman, 66, is a writer, actor and singer who is known for his baritone voice and for giving Kylie Minogue street cred.
But his life has been marred by tragedy after losing two children in the last 10 years.
His son Arthur, 15, died in 2015 after taking LSD for the first time, before falling almost 20 metres from a cliff near his home in Brighton, England.
Meanwhile, his son Jethro, 31, who had schizophrenia and battled drug addiction, died in Melbourne in 2022 two days after he was released from jail and two months after violently assaulting his own mother.
The musician, in a promo for a special n Story interview, choked up as he shared how after burying his two sons he no longer values art above all else.
‘I was in awe of my own genius,’ said Cave, ‘I just saw the folly of that … disgraceful sort of self-indulgence.’
Cave explained that throughout his life, art was his first priority, but says that mindset and lifestyle ‘collapsed completely’ after Arthur’s death.
‘That idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn’t apply to me anymore,’ he told interviewer Leigh Sales.
Describing himself as a ‘husband’, ‘father’, ‘grandfather’ and a ‘person of the world’, Cave said: ‘These things are much more important to me than the concept of being an artist.’
As he delved into the topic of his sons further, the musician began to choke up.
‘I’m sorry this is actually quite difficult to talk about,’ he said as the emotion overcame him.
Cave has previously said ‘there can’t help but be feelings of culpability’ over the deaths of his sons because it is ‘against nature’ to bury a child.
‘I think it’s something that people who lose children feel regardless of the situation, simply because the one thing you’re supposed to do is not let your children die,’ he told The Guardian earlier this year.
‘Forget that. The one thing you’re supposed to do is protect your children.’
Cave is a former heroin addict who was arrested for possession in 1988 while recording in London.
Addressing if he feels culpable because drugs were involved in Arthur’s death, he said: ‘There could be some element of that, yep.
‘Look, these things are in our DNA, they’re inherited. I don’t want to make any assumptions about Arthur, who was just a young boy. It’s not like he was into drugs.
Arthur tragically died in July 2015 after plummeting from a cliff during an LSD session with a friend.
An inquest into his death heard that the 15-year-old, who also had cannabis in his system, was ‘completely disorientated’ as he stumbled off a cliff into the sheer Ovingdean Gap near Brighton.
Another of the popstar’s other sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in May 2022 just days after being released from jail.
The 31-year-old had been behind bars for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’.
Speaking days before his death in court, Jethro’s lawyer revealed he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement.
The troubled man, who had spent years in and out of custody as his life spiralled out of control in a haze of illicit drugs, had been facing more criminal charges when he was found dead in a $100-a-night motel in Melbourne.
Speaking about grief, Cave said: ‘We eventually absorb, or rearrange ourselves, so that we become creatures of loss as we get older; this is part of our fundamental fabric of what we are as human beings,’ he says.
‘This is not a tragic element to our lives but rather a deepening element and that brings incredible meaning into our life.
‘I’ve found that personally, and I think a lot of other people have found that, provided you can remain open.’
Cave has since had a growing commitment to Christianity, which has alienated some fans.
But he said he and the Bad Seeds have never been afraid of losing fans.
For example, in 1995 he performed a duet with Kylie Minogue with Where the Wild Roses Grow – a song about a slide into insanity and murder.
But the combination of Minogue’s sweetness and Cave’s dark persona helped the song become the Bad Seeds’ biggest commercial success worldwide.
Cave has had reason for joy recently, as his first grandson, Roman, was born to his daughter-in-law Sasha and son Luke, from Cave’s marriage to Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro.
He also has another son called Earl, who is the twin brother to Arthur, with his wife of 25 years, British fashion designer and former model, Susie Bick.
The singer said he remains completely in love with Bick and the two are bonded by love and the catastrophe of Arthur’s death.
He said: ‘To see her go from someone that was completely incapacitated, bedridden, in a darkened room, in a tomb of her own, to someone that eventually got out of bed and went to work… to sort of rise out of it in some way, I’m forever in awe.’