“What is this garbage?”: 25 years on, Nick Cave has made his peace with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and reveals what happened when Flea came face to face with a bear…

There’s a famous quote in music journo land that goes like this: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

Its origin? Nick Cave, and in the 25 years since he said it, it's been equally praised or derided depending on your particular point of view as to whether rock + funk should ever have become ‘a thing’.

Discuss…

Now, 25 years later, Cage has stepped forward to reveal the burden he’s had to carry, the surprising, long-lasting outcome of his riposte and just what happened when Flea – the famously energetic bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers – came face to face with a bear…

“I was a troublemaker”

The revelations come courtesy of the latest missive from Cave’s The Red Hand Files newsletter in which he skillfully addresses two reader questions simultaneously: “My best friend recently said something that felt really spiteful to me. It was so unnecessary and mean and I feel just so wounded. I am furious at my friend. How do I forgive her? What do I even do?” asks Beatriz from Brazil.

Meanwhile Brenda from Washington DC asks: “We have all heard the famous quote attributed to you regarding the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Could you enlighten us on the truthfulness of that quote?”

And Cave’s answer is as enlightening as it is expertly written.

“About twenty-five years ago, I made an offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark about the Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Cage begins. “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 shit-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant. Perhaps it’s an Australian trait among people of my generation, I don’t know, but that comment has followed me around for the last quarter-century.

"But the most interesting aspect of all this is not what I said about the Chili Peppers, but rather the response from Flea, their bass player.

“On Facebook, Flea expressed how hurt he felt by my remark, but went on to say, in great detail, that he loved my music regardless. He wrote a profoundly generous and open-hearted love letter to Nick Cave.

"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.

Thus began an unlikely friendship…

“On the Push The Sky Away tour, we asked Flea if he could assemble a children’s choir, from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music he founded, to accompany the Bad Seeds at the Coachella Festival,” says Cage.

“When Warren [Ellis] and I were on the Carnage tour, we asked Flea to join us and play the song We No Who U R. Watching Warren and Flea perform together with such heart and mutual regard was a glorious sight.”

So much so that Cave is now appearing on Flea’s new… “trumpet record”…?

“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…” reveals Cage.

“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.”

“Everybody froze. The bear was about ten feet away from them.”

And there’s more. Cage goes on to reveal what happened when his friend, the artist Thomas Houseago, once went hiking with Flea.

“They had been hiking for five days and were walking along a densely forested trail when a bear appeared on the path before them,” Cage begins. “Everybody froze. The bear was about ten feet away from them.

“Thomas and the guide gripped their tent poles, perhaps to defend themselves in case the bear attacked. Flea, however, stepped forward, stood before the bear, and spoke to it. He acknowledged they were visitors in the bear’s territory, expressed his love for the bear, and requested permission to continue along the trail. The bear stepped off the path and allowed them to pass.”

So, the next time you're listening to something and you think it’s “garbage”, instead of aimlessly lashing out, instead imagine its creator making friends with a bear… And asking you to play on their “trumpet record”… And relax…

You can thank us later.