Nick Cave has reflected on his previous “uncharitable remark” about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, admitting he was a “troublemaker, a shit-stirrer”.
Allegedly, around some time in 2004, Cave was quoted saying: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
Now, after being asked to expand on the truthfulness of that quote on his blog, Red Hand Files, Cave has addressed the comment and reflected on his words. “About twenty-five years ago, I made an offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was no malice intended, it was just the sort of obnoxious thing I would say back then to piss people off,” Cave wrote.
He continued: “I was a troublemaker, a shit-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant. Perhaps it’s an Australian trait among people of my generation, I don’t know, but that comment has followed me around for the last quarter-century. But the most interesting aspect of all this is not what I said about the Chili Peppers, but rather the response from Flea, their bass player.”
As a response to Cave’s comments about the band, Flea took to RHCP’s official website in 2006 and explained: “For a second that hurt my feelings because I love Nick Cave. I have all of his records. I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me because he is one of my favourite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds.But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love is bigger than all that shit ,and if he thinks my band is lame that’s OK.”
Cave also addressed Flea’s response on his blog and wrote: “Flea expressed how hurt he felt by my remark, but went on to say, in great detail, that he loved my music regardless.
“He wrote a profoundly generous and open-hearted love letter to Nick Cave. I remember being genuinely moved by his words and thinking what a classy guy Flea was, and feeling on some subterranean level that I was unable to fully grasp at that point in my life, that Flea was a human being of an entirely different calibre, indeed, of a higher order.”
Cave then went on to describe how he would see Flea at various festivals that both he and the Chili Peppers were playing at backstage and that “there was a presence to Flea that felt genuine and oddly affecting.”
He also opened up about contributing to Flea’s forthcoming trumpet album, sharing that the bassist had washed him to add vocals to a song. “It is not for me to divulge what the song was, only that it is a song I cherish more than most, with arguably the greatest lyric ever written, a song of such esteem that I would never have dared to sing it had Flea not asked me to,” Cave wrote.
He continued: “I went into the studio on Wednesday and recorded my vocals. The track emerged as a beautiful conversation between Flea’s trumpet and my voice, filled with yearning and love, the song transcending its individual parts and becoming a slowly evolving cosmic dance, in the form of a reconciliation and an apology.”
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, and Flea, a transformational collective experience. Thank you, @nickcave @ShrineLA. pic.twitter.com/affcHpnFVf
— Colette Weintraub (@rockisagirlsbff) March 10, 2022
Back in 2011, Flea opened up about his love for the Bad Seeds singer and said that he was “the greatest living songwriter”. He also joined Cave and Warren Ellis on stage back in 2022 at their show in Los Angeles and performed ‘We No Who U R’ from the Bad Seeds’ 2012 album, ‘Push The Sky Away’.
In other news, Cave & The Bad Seeds recently announced a global ‘Live In Paris’ stream that captures the final ‘Wild God Tour’ show.
Cave is set to embark on another tour later this year – playing 13 solo shows across Europe between June and August. Visit here for remaining tickets.
As for the Chili Peppers, it was shared that they are reportedly looking to sell their recorded music catalogue for US$350million.