Nick Cave

He was involved in a romantic relationship with Anita Lane from in the 1970s to the 1980s.

He had a son with Viviane Carneiro in 1991. He remained married for six years and filed for divorce in 1996. Meanwhile, he fathered an illegitimate son Jethro born in 1991 to Beau Lazenby.

He then dated P J Harvey before he met Susie Bick in 1997. He married Bick in 1999. The couple has been blessed with twin sons, Arthur and Earl.

Nicholas Edward ‘Nick’ Cave was born on September 22, 1957 to Colin Frank Cave and Dawn Treadwell in Warracknabeal, Australia. He has two brothers and a sister. During their early years, the family lived in Wangaratta.

From very early on, he was taught the importance of literature and was raised as an Anglican by his family. He was a troublesome boy and was sent to study in Caulfield Grammar School, a boarding institution.

He then became a day-scholar when his family moved to Murrumbeena. The tragic death of his father in a car-accident changed his perceptions about life, leaving a ‘vacuum’ in his life.

He studied painting after high school at the Caulfield Institute of Technology but dropped out in 1977 to pursue music professionally. Around this time, he also began taking drugs.

During his high school years, he befriended Mick Harvey, Brett Purcell, Phill Calvert, Chris Coyne and John Cochivera, with whom he formed the band, ‘The Boys Next Door’, in 1977, which later came to be known as ‘The Birthday Party’.

Rowland S. Howard joined the band in 1978, as a guitarist and songwriter. Their music was laced with gothic influences and was usually based on the themes of curses, turpitudes and damnation.

Once Cave got bored with this theme, he released the single, ‘Release the Bats’, in 1981, which served as a comical parody of the ‘dark’ theme that they banked on for so many years. Two years later, he formed the alternative rock band, with him on the lead vocals called, ‘Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’.

‘The Birthday Party’ disbanded in 1984. It was during this time that two of his songs were featured in the film, ‘Wings of Desire’, which released three years later. The band ‘Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ also appeared playing a small cameo in the film.

In 1988, he authored his first book, ‘King Ink’ which in fact is an assortment of plays, lyrics and his collaborations with Lydia Lunch. The following year, he released another novel, ‘And the Ass Saw the Angel’.

‘Murder Ballads’, released in 1996 by ‘Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’, is considered one of the best albums of the band till date. The album comprises of ballads in the alternative rock genre and has received two prestigious ARIA Awards the year it was released. This album was their biggest commercial success till date and Cave was also nominated for ‘best male artist’ for that year.