Nick Cave says he was “repelled” by work after the death of his two sons

nme.com:

Nick Cave has spoken again about the death of his two sons, admitting that their passing made him realise that work is not the “be-all and end-all of everything”.His 15-year-old son Arthur Cave died unexpectedly in July 2015.

He was one of the twin sons Cave shares with his wife, Susie Bick, who died following a fall from a cliff near Brighton.In 2022, Cave confirmed that his eldest son, Jethro Lazenby, had died at the age of 31.

His passing came after he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.The Bad Seeds frontman previously spoke about how the experiences shaped him in both his personal and professional life last year, and led to him placing his art on less of a pedestal.“That idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn’t apply to me anymore,” he said at the time. “Rather than making me bitter, it did the opposite in some way.

It made me much more connected to people in general.”Now, speaking in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he reinforced the point.He said: “It has a lot to do with Arthur and Jethro… I always just thought art was, kind of at the end of the day, everything.