Some time around 2004, Nick Cave took a bit of a swipe at the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the musician saying: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the f*ck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always ‘The Red Hot Chili Peppers.’”
While the exact origins of the quote have been forgotten, it has become somewhat infamous.
Chili Peppers bassist Flea responded to Cave’s remarks in 2006, saying that the comment briefly hurt his feelings because of how big a fan he is of the Bad Seeds frontman.
“I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me,” Flea said. “He is one of my favorite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. 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, all these years later, Cave is clarifying his feelings towards the Anthony Kiedis fronted band. When asked by a fan on his website, The Red Hand Files, about the famous quote, Cave responded:
“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 piss people off. I was a troublemaker, a sh*t-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant… But that comment has followed me around for the last quarter-century.
Cave then recalled hearing about Flea’s response to his comments:
“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.”
He also added how he and Flea have since buried the hatchet, with the pair having “pleasant” interactions at festivals throughout the years. Cave went on to reveal that Flea is currently working on a new album, and that he has contributed vocals on at least one of the tracks.
“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. 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,” he said.
“I went into the studio on Wednesday and recorded my vocals. 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.”
