Nick Cave has defended his decision to accept an invitation to attend King Charles III's coronation.
Cave is to attend this weekend's event as part of the Austrailian delegation, along with the country's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Austrailian footballer Sam Kerr and others.
Defending his acceptance of this invitation, Cave stated that he is "not a monarchist".
Nick Cave addressed the matter via his Red Hand Files newsletter, after a fan had asked the singer, “What would the young Nick Cave have thought of that?!”.
Responding to this querie, Cave had this to say.
“I’ll make this a quick one because I’ve got to work out what I am going to wear to the Coronation", the 'Red Right Hand' singer wrote.
Cave continued, “I am not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican for that matter; what I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age. Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest".
Elsewhere, Nick Cave also mentioned how on one occassion, he met the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Calling it a "most awkward affair", Cave added that the Queen “seemed almost extraterrestrial and was the most charismatic woman I have ever met”.
“Maybe it was the lighting, but she actually glowed", the singer claimed.
“As I told my mother – who was the same age as the Queen and, like the Queen, died in her nineties – about that day, her old eyes filled with tears".
In fact, Cave went on to state that he was "weeping myself" while watching the Queen's funeral, especially when the coffin was “stripped of the crown, orb and sceptre and lowered through the floor of St. George’s Chapel”.
He also wrote, “I guess what I am trying to say is that, beyond the interminable but necessary debates about the abolition of the monarchy, I hold an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals – the strangeness of them, the deeply eccentric nature of the whole affair that so perfectly reflects the unique weirdness of Britain itself".
“I’m just drawn to that kind of thing – the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, the awe-inspiring".
Cave concluded his newsletter by saying, “And as for what the young Nick Cave would have thought – well, the young Nick Cave was, in all due respect to the young Nick Cave, young, and like many young people, mostly demented, so I’m a little cautious around using him as a benchmark for what I should or should not do. He was cute though, I’ll give him that. Deranged, but cute".
“So, with all that in mind, I am looking forward to going the Coronation. I think I’ll wear a suit".
Last month, Nick Cave also announced dates for his 'In Conversation' tour', which will see him engage in Q&A sessions and book signings for his memoir, ‘Hope, Faith, And Carnage’.
These dates kick off on May 28. Find out more here.
