4 July 2023

Nick Cave “wouldn’t have been able to” perform on ‘Top of the Pops’ with Kylie Minogue without being high.

Nick Cave remembers being high whilst performing with Kylie Minogue

The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds frontman, 65, teamed up with pop superstar Kylie in 1995 to release eery ballad ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ – which tells the story of a young woman who is murdered by her lover – but admitted that when they performed the song on an episode of the classic BBC charts show he was under the influence of drugs and explained that while he was delighted to be working with the ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ singer, her management thought it was a “bad idea” to start with.

Speaking on ‘The Louis Theroux Podcast’, he said: “We were loving all of that and Kylie loved it too. It was a murder ballad that ends with the character killing his beloved. It’s a duet and in my opinion, it’s not a bad murder ballad, as far as murder ballads go, it’s pretty good. It was quite something at the time for Kylie to take on. I certainly wasn’t in showroom condition.

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“Her management were like ‘This is a bad idea’, we were a bunch of dark drug-addicted monstrosities all sort of scowling in the studio but she was determined to do that and she was this extraordinary presence who came in and just sang the song really beautifully.

“She sort of radiates a lightness of spirit and displayed an enormous amount of courage I think and the record did really well. She walked into a studio amongst a bunch of degenerates. Her management were obviously slightly nervous about what was going on with their princess but we just became extremely good friends and despite maybe the dubious nature of the song, it was for me a part of my career that I have extremely fond memories and so does she.

“We have stayed very good friends. I can’t remember too much about being on ‘Top of the Pops’ with her but I [was high], for sure of course. I couldn’t have done it otherwise. “

Nick went on to add that he wanted to give the ‘Padam Padam’ hitmaker – who at that point had released a string of bubblegum pop albums under Stock Aitken Waterman and had started to transition into a more Indie phase – the chance to “slow down” in her career and thought it turned out to be a “beautiful” duet in the end.

He added: “It wasn’t the ‘Top of the Pops’ bit that was of any real interest me apart from its perverse nature but it was getting the opportunity with Kylie who I’d always admired, she was an Australian icon. I just felt it would be nice to slow her down and do something that was at odds with the way she appeared. It was quite beautiful. “