Some artists don’t have a filter and come at you with hard-hitting truths about how they feel. Whether this makes them better or worse is not the question. The real question is, what happens after they make comments that might be too harsh for anyone to handle? For instance, Nick Cave called Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘garbage’ shortly after the three sold-out Hyde Park dates in the summer of 2004. Did he cross a line? Let’s look at how the story unfolded between the two artists.
When Cave was asked about the industry’s current state in 2004, while Red Hot Chili Peppers were enjoying the peak of their career, the singer didn’t hold back as he said, “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What… is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” Ouch! That must have hurt, especially coming from someone that the RHCP’s guitarist Flea had idolized and loved for years in the industry.
After two years of radio silence regarding Cave’s remarks, Flea finally shared his thoughts on RHCP’s official website. He said, “For a second, that hurt my feelings because I love Nick Cave. I have all of his records. I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band. After all, his music means everything to me; because he is one of my favorite songwriters, singers, and musicians of all time.”
“I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds,” added the guitarist about Nick Cave’s impact on him. “But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love is bigger than all that shit, and if he thinks my band is lame, that’s OK.”
Flea didn’t seem to be bothered by Cave’s comments all that much, as he is still Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds frontman’s biggest fan. In fact, the two artists proved that they indeed moved on from the uncomfortable dispute when they performed together this past March.
The bassist joined Nick Cave and Warren Ellis onstage in LA in March to perform Bad Seeds’ ‘We No Who U R.’ If that wasn’t enough to show the audience that they had moved past Cave’s comments, he also joined them for the second encore of the night where Flea helped them perform the opening track to The Bad Seeds’ 2012 album, ‘Push The Sky Away.’
From afar, it looks like it’s water under the bridge, and the guys have no bad blood whatsoever, which can only mean more collaborations, right? Or are we jumping the gun? Time will tell.
