In case you were wondering, all is good between Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nick Cave.
That, of course, was not always the case. The “Red Right Hand” rocker was infamously quoted as calling the “Under the Bridge” band’s music “garbage.” But 25 years later, he has warmer feelings for the Peps, especially regarding bassist Flea.
In the latest entry in his Red Hand Files blog, Cave describes his initial remark as “offhand and somewhat uncharitable,” noting that “it was just the sort of obnoxious thing I would say back then to piss people off.”
“There was no malice intended,” Cave maintains, though he realized he still may have caused some when Flea shared a response.
“Flea expressed how hurt he felt by my remark, but went on to say, in great detail, that he loved my music regardless,” Cave says. “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 [caliber], indeed, of a higher order.”
Over the years Cave would cross paths with Flea, and they even played together live. Fast-forward to now, and Cave says he and Flea are working together on a collaboration with him singing over the bassist’s trumpet playing.
“It is not for me to divulge what the song was, only that it is a song I cherish more than most, with arguably the greatest lyric ever written, a song of such esteem that I would never have dared to sing it had Flea not asked me to,” Cave says.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
