In honor of Nick Cave's birthday, we've gathered some interesting facts about him:
(Photo: Wallpaperflare.com)
1. Nick Cave was born on September 22, 1957 in Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia. His name at birth was Nicholas Edward Cave.
2. His father worked as a teacher of English and mathematics at the local technical high school, and his mother was a librarian. It was his father who exposed him to literature and poetry.
3. When he was 9 years old he joined the Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir in Wangaratta.
4. The musical influences on Nick Cave as a child came from his older brother. He listened to progressive rock and loved bands like "King Crimson", "Pink Floyd" and "Jethro Tull". later his girlfriend introduced him to Leonard Cohen whom Cave defined as the greatest songwriter of all time.
(Photo: Tom Sheehan)
5. Nick Cave was 19 when his father was killed in a car accident.
6. He started his musical career in 1973 when he met guitarist Mick Harvey. In 1977 they formed the post-punk band "The Boys Next Door" which released their debut album "Door, Door" in 1977. Later the band moved to London and changed its name to "The Birthday Party", releasing four albums before it disbanded.
(Photo: Michel Lawrence)
7. Shortly after the breakup of "The Birthday Party", Cave formed "the Bad Seeds" with guitarist (who has since become a multi-instrumentalist) Mick Harvey.
8. Nick Cave became the most prominent and main writer of "The Bad Seeds". He writes his poems on a typewriter.
9. His lyrics usually revolve around issues of religion, death, love, and violence.
10. In 1984 he released his debut album "From Her to Eternity" along with "The Bad Seeds" as his backing band.
11. In 1987, after four albums, "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds" appeared in the mythical film "Wings of Desire" directed by Wim Wenders.
12. Later on, Cave will also appear in the 1988 film "Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead" and will also write the soundtrack for the film.
13. In 1990 Cave moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to escape the gothic and punk scenes that claimed him to be their idol. He found love there, went through a rehab process and wrote material there that would become his masterpiece album "The Good Son".
14. In 1996 he was nominated for "Best Male Artist" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, for the album "Murder Ballads". Surprisingly Cave sought to withdraw his candidacy, fearing that competitiveness would hurt his work. And so he wrote as an explanation for the removal of the candidacy:
"My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel--this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!"
5. He briefly dated PJ Harvey in the mid-1990s, who also recorded a duet with her on the 1996 album "Murder Ballads".
16. In the same year Cave became the godfather of Michael Hutchence's daughter.
(Photo: Eventworld.co)
17. Nick Cave has always expressed his love for Johnny Cash. In 2000, Cash covered Cave's "The Mercy Seat" in thanks for Cave's cover version of Cash's song "The Singer" on his album "Kicking Against the Pricks". Later Cave will fulfill his dream and meet Cash when they both perform a duet to Hank Williams' song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", which will be included in Cash's last album "American IV: The Man Comes Around" from 2002.
18. In 2001, Cave recorded a cover version of the Beatles' song "Let It Be", for the soundtrack of the movie "I Am Sam".
19. Nick Cave is also a screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film "The Proposition." Later Cave wrote a screenplay called "The Wettest County in the World" which became the film "Lawless" from 2012.
20. The influence of Cave crosses borders. Even members of "Metallica" cited him as an inspiration and recorded a cover version of his song "Loverman" from the album "Let Love In", which was included on their album "Garage Inc."
21. In 2007, Nick Cave and some of his bandmates formed "Grinderman", a punk band in which Nick Cave returns to the style that characterized him at the beginning of his career. He plays electric guitar for the first time. The band has so far released two studio albums.
22. That same year Nick was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame.
23. Nick Cave is also a writer. He's the author of the books "And The Ass Saw The Angel", "The Death Of Bunny Munro" and "King Ink".
24. In 2009 Cave narrated the animated film "The Cat Piano".
25. In July 2015 his son Arthur, then only 15 years old, was killed by falling from a cliff. Cave sank into depression and turned to write, the result can be listened to in his excellent album "Skeleton Tree".
26. Nick Cave is known as a supporter of Israel and he has visited it several times even on private visits. In addition, he performed in Israel 4 times, when the fifth performance that was supposed to take place in 2020 at Bloomfield Stadium was canceled due to Covid-19. During his last show in Israel in 2017, he stated at a press conference that he came here in response to BDS.
27. Inbal Perlmutter from the band "The Witches" approached Cave and asked him to record a cover version of the song "Shivers" of "The Boys Next Door". Cave accepted the invitation and the song was included on the 1996 mini-album "The Witches Cover".
28. Nick Cave was elected an officer of the Order of Australia in 2017.
29. During his extensive career Cave has released no less than 24 studio albums, 4 with The Boys Next Door/the Birthday Party, 17 with "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds", two more with "Grinderman" and one with his friend Warren Ellis released in 2021.
30. In addition Cave released 5 more live albums and co-wrote no less than 24 different soundtracks.