Nick Cave said Morrissey recently contacted him with an offer to provide vocals on a new song of his. It’s something Cave, a longtime fan, said he “would have been happy to do,” were it not for the fact that Morrissey wasn’t asking him to sing a verse or provide backing vocals, but intro the track with “an unnecessarily provocative” spoken-word speech.
Responding to a fan question on his “Red Hand Files” website regarding his relationship with Morrissey, Cave said the former Smiths frontman reached out to him last year about the song via email. Cave called the track “quite lovely,” but said it “began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro.” (A bouzouki is a long-necked string instrument.)
Over this instrumental intro, Cave continued, Morrissey wanted him to deliver a “slightly silly anti-woke screed [Morrissey] had written.” Cave did not share any details about the salvo, and even admitted, “I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level.” But, he said, “it just wasn’t my thing,” so he “politely declined” the offer.
“I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with,” Cave said. “I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve.”
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Despite not knowing what exactly Morrissey had written for Cave, it’s not exactly difficult to imagine. Over the past few years, Morrissey has regularly courted controversy with some of his more far-right views, especially over immigration. Since he released his last solo album, 2020’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, Morrissey has teased several follow-ups, but none have been released yet. In an interview last year, Morrissey claimed that one LP had been “gagged” and “idiot culture” was preventing its release.
Even without new music, though, Morrissey has remained busy on the road. He completed a run of North American shows earlier this spring, and just kicked off a European trek that’ll stretch through August. He has another leg of North American concerts scheduled for September and October.
