Australian Story returns to ABC next week as Leigh Sales conducts an interview with singer-songwriter Nick Cave.
For many decades, Cave led a chaotic life, addicted to heroin and fathering two children to different women 10 days apart. In the late 1990s he got clean and met his current wife, Susie Bick, with whom he had twin boys Arthur and Earl.
In 2015, Arthur died in an accidental fall, a cataclysmic event that changed the course of Cave’s life and work. He made the unusual decision to open himself up to his fans, responding to their letters via his website The Red Hand Files. Through this process of communion, he navigated his grief and came to see the world in a different way, embracing religion and making the case for a life grounded in curiosity and kindness.
In a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with Leigh Sales, Cave discusses the enduring strength of his Australian roots, what he has learned about grief, his attitude to drugs, his search for meaning in religion and why he continues to make new, often challenging, music well into his 60s with his band the Bad Seeds. He reflects on his famous 1995 duet with Kylie Minogue (“I wasn’t remotely in showroom condition at the time”) and jokes that he is no longer “in awe of my own genius”.
Combined with archival interviews, live performances and excerpts from recent documentaries, Nick Cave’s interview with Leigh Sales paints a fascinating portrait of a complex artist who has made peace with the world while remaining at the peak of his powers.
Producer: Kirstin Murray.
8pm Monday on ABC
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