Nick Cave explains why he felt “conflicted” during the coronation of King Charles
Following his attendance at the coronation of King Charles, Nick Cave has explained why he felt “conflicted” during the ceremony.
In a new interview with Channel 4, Cave said: “I went along to the Coronation entirely out of curiosity and found the whole thing to be acutely interesting, to say the least.” When probed upon why it was “interesting”, the Australian musician added, “I thought I would feel things when I went to the Coronation but I didn’t know I would feel them in such an extreme way, and they were conflicted feelings.”
He continued: “Sometimes I felt extremely bored, other times I felt completely awe-struck by the event, extremely moved by the music, ‘Zadok The Priest’ was something from out of space. I was kind of amused by what was going on, angered by what was going on. It brought up a lot of different sorts of things.”
Cave then explained how he sat next to an Australian artist from an indigenous background who was also “deeply conflicted”. To the other side of him was a Tory MP, who Cave described as a “staunch monarchist”.
In a previous edition of his newsletter, The Red Hand Files, Cave defended his decision to attend the ceremonial event. The Bad Seeds singer declared he’s “not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican” but described it as “the most important historical event in the UK of our age.”
He also shared an experience of meeting the late Queen and named her as “the most charismatic woman I’ve ever met”. Cave wrote: “I once met the late Queen at an event at Buckingham Palace for ‘Aspirational Australians living in the UK’ (or something like that). It was a mostly awkward affair, but the Queen herself, dressed in a salmon coloured twin-set, seemed almost extraterrestrial and was the most charismatic woman I have ever met”.
“Maybe it was the lighting, but she actually glowed. As I told my mother – who was the same age as the Queen and, like the Queen, died in her nineties – about that day, her old eyes filled with tears,” Cave added.
Watch the interview below.
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