Nick Cave Denied a Morrissey Collaboration Over an ‘Anti-Woke Screed’

The collective hopes of followers eager for a collaboration between Nick Cave and Morrissey have been dashed, with the previous revealing he turned down the chance to take action final yr.

Cave’s revelation arrived by means of his Red Hand Files website, the place he responded to a fan asking if he had ever met the previous vocalist of The Smiths.

Labelling Morrissey a “advanced and divisive determine, somebody who takes greater than just a little pleasure in p–sing individuals off” and “most likely the perfect lyricist of his technology,” Cave admitted that he had not had the prospect to cross paths with the singer, including which may be why he stays a fan.

Nonetheless, Cave additionally added that Morrissey had approached him through e-mail in 2024 to carry out on a brand new music that he had written. “I might have been glad to take action, nevertheless, whereas the music he despatched was fairly beautiful, it started with a prolonged and completely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro,” Cave defined. 

“It additionally appeared that he didn’t need me to really sing on the music, however ship, excessive of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and barely foolish anti-woke screed he had written.”

Whereas Cave didn’t share any particular particulars in regard to the lyrical content material of Morrissey’s monitor, he defined that it was sufficient for him to “politely decline” the provide.

“Though I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some degree, it simply wasn’t my factor,” Cave defined “I attempt to maintain politics, cultural or in any other case, out of the music I’m concerned with. I discover that it has a diminishing impact and is antithetical to no matter it’s I’m making an attempt to attain.”

Morrissey’s most up-to-date solo album, I Am Not a Canine on a Chain, arrived again in 2020. In November, the singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Youngsters, has been shelved to this point due to his numerous controversial statements. 

“As you understand, no one will launch my music anymore,” Morrissey informed a crowd in New Jersey. “As you understand as a result of I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at the very least, it’s now criminalized.”