Nick Cave Opens Up About How He Changed After Tragic Death of Two Sons: “I Was In Awe of My Own Genius”

Nick Cave recently got vulnerable in an interview with ABC’s Australian Story program, speaking about the deaths of his two sons in seven years. In 2015, his 15-year-old son Arthur died after accidentally falling off a cliff. Then, in 2022, his oldest son Jethro passed away at 31. Those tragedies fundamentally changed Cave, who said he was previously “in awe of my own genius.”

After Arthur’s death, Cave said his life “collapsed completely,” adding, “I just saw the folly of that … disgraceful sort of self-indulgence.” He continued, “I’m a father and I’m a husband and a grandfather and a kind of person of the world. These things are much more important to me than the concept of being an artist.”

In his side project that he started after Arthur’s death, The Red Hand Files, Nick Cave often answers questions from fans concerning grief or the purpose of life. He shared that the project, which is less an advice column and more of a cathartic release of thought, is “shifting into the center of what I do,” adding, “It’s grown in importance to the way I am and the way that I live my life and the way I communicate with my audience.”

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Nick Cave Came to a Conclusion About Grief Through His Blog The Red Hand Files and Communicating with His Audience

The Red Hand Files helped Cave open up about his grief in the aftermath of his sons’ deaths. In time, Cave came to realize something about the experience of grief.

“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 said. “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 also found meaning through religion and practicing Christianity. While that shift caused him and The Bad Seeds to lose quite a few fans, he said they’ve never been afraid of that.

“I think that’s the reason why we hang around for so long, because our audience is being constantly sort of reinvigorated by presenting different forms of music,” he said. With a new album, Wild God, due out on August 30, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are reinvigorating their fanbase once more.

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