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Nick Cave reflects on viral comment about the Red Hot Chili Peppers that's 'followed him for 25 years' and admits there was 'no malice intended' Have YOU got a story? Email [email protected] By MADISON BURGESS Published: 19:39 EDT, 14 March 2025 | Updated: 19:50 EDT, 14 March 2025 e-mail View comments Most people will be familiar with the comment Nick Cave made about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as it's stuck around as a viral meme for a quarter of a century. And now the Australian musician, 67, has finally addressed them and revealed that there is no bad blood between himself and the rock group.
Although it's unknown exactly where or when he said it, Nick took aim at the band by saying: 'I'm forever near a stereo saying, 'What the f*** is this garbage?' And the answer is always The Red Hot Chili Peppers'. The unexpected swipe quickly picked up traction online and has haunted him ever since - with Chilis bassist Flea even commenting on it himself. At the time, he said: 'I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me.
'He is one of my favorite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. Most people will be familiar with the comment Nick Cave made about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as it's stuck around as a viral meme for a quarter of a century And now the Australian musician, 67, has finally addressed them and revealed that there is no bad blood between himself and the rock group (Chilis bassist Flea pictured) 'But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love for his music is bigger than all that shit and if he thinks my band is lame then that’s OK.
' Now, Nick has finally addressed the situation by responding to a message from a fan on his Red Hand Files website. Nick wrote: '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 p*** people off. I was a troublemaker, a s***-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant.' He added: '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.
' Touching on the moment he read Flea's response, he admitted: '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.' And now, any bad blood has turly been put to bed as the duo are working on music together. 'Last week, Flea sent me a song and asked if I’d like to add some vocals.
It was for a “trumpet record” that he is making,' wrote Nick. He added: '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.' Although it's unknown exactly where or when he said it, Nick took aim at the band by saying: 'I'm forever near a stereo saying, 'What the f*** is this garbage?' And the answer is always The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Nick wrote: 'About twenty-five years ago, I made an offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark about The Red Hot Chili Peppers' (pictured in 1990) It comes just after Nick defended his 'fondness' for Kanye West's music – despite his recent antisemitic rampage.
The musician recently revealed he would like the problematic rapper's 2013 song I Am God played at his funeral after he named the Yeezus track as one of his favourite songs on the BBC's Desert Island Discs. However, his choice didn't go down well with some fans after Kanye was banned on Twitter after he went on an anti-Semitic rant, saying that he was a 'Nazi' and loved Hitler. Nick explained that while Kanye's behaviour has been 'unacceptable', he is 'reluctant to invalidate the best of us in an attempt to punish the worse.
' A fan asked him on his The Red Hand Files blog: 'How the hell can you listen to the song without seeing the scum of a human being that Kanye has become?' Nick then responded: 'Numerous letters have come in expressing, in no uncertain terms, disapproval of my fondness for Kanye West's music. 'A lot of time and energy has been spent explaining the evil of Nazism, the harm of antisemitism, why it is wrong to sell t-shirts emblazoned with swastikas and why it is unacceptable to coerce one's girlfriend into standing naked on the red carpet at the Grammys. 'On that matter, it seems, we can all find some common ground.
I agree.' Clarifying that he does not believe it’s possible to separate the artist from their art, he continued: 'The idea of an artist being divorced from their art is absurd. 'Last week, Flea sent me a song and asked if I’d like to add some vocals.
It was for a “trumpet record” that he is making,' wrote Nick (Flea pictured) 'An artist and their art are fundamentally intertwined because art is the essence of the artist made manifest. 'The artist's work proclaims, "This is me. I am here.
This is what I am." However, the great gift of art is the potential for the artist to excavate their interior chaos and transform it into something sublime. 'This is what Kanye does.
This is what I strive to do, and this is the enterprise undertaken by all genuine artists. The remarkable utility of art lies in its audacity to transfigure our corrupted state and create something beautiful.' He insisted that it's still possible for 'broken and flawed people' to 'achieve staggering things – beautiful, brilliant, inspiring, wild and audacious things.
' 'We are all broken, flawed, and suffering human beings, each a disaster in our own right, each with the capacity to cause great harm, each brimming with misguided notions, perhaps the most deluded of which is the belief that we are somehow exclusively and morally superior to everyone else. 'Many of you might be thinking, "Well, speak for yourself! I'm not like Kanye! I could never behave like that!" Yet, given the circumstances, we humans are capable of anything. 'To be human is to be flawed, yet it is also to possess the potential to achieve staggering things – beautiful, brilliant, inspiring, wild and audacious things; things to be cherished, despite our complex and compromised natures.
' Nick added that he always looks 'to seek the beauty wherever it presents itself'. It comes just after Nick defended his 'fondness' for Kanye West's music – despite his recent antisemitic rampage He said: 'As sickening as anti-Semitism is – in its sadly always-present, ever-morphing forms – I endeavour to seek beauty wherever it presents itself. 'In doing so, I am reluctant to invalidate the best of us in an attempt to punish the worse.
I don't think we can afford that luxury.' Sharing his love for Kanye's song on Desert Island Discs, he said: 'This became, weirdly enough, a kind of family song. My kids love it, Susie [his wife] loves it, I love it.
'It's an extremely playful, extremely dark, complex song where on the one hand, Kanye is presenting himself as a god, and then towards the end of the song, he's screaming in terror.' He continued: 'It's an unbelievably deep song, in my view. This is a song that I value on a personal level, and actually I just think is a complete, amazing work of art.
' Nick previously hailed the Stronger hitmaker 'the greatest artist on Earth'. He told fans on his blog in 2020: 'Making art is a form of madness – we slip deep within our own singular vision and become lost to it. 'There is no musician on Earth that is as committed to their own derangement as Kanye, and in this respect, at this point in time, he is our greatest artist.
' However, it's not the first time he has called out Kanye's behaviour. Speaking at London's Southbank in 2022, he admitted he found the Good Morning rapper's antisemitism 'deeply disappointing' and 'disgraceful'. Nick Cave Kanye West Share or comment on this article: Nick Cave reflects on viral comment about the Red Hot Chili Peppers that's 'followed him for 25 years' and admits there was 'no malice intended' e-mail Add comment Comments 0 Share what you think No comments have so far been submitted.
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