Nick Cave discusses the impact of tinnitus: “It’s a pain in the arse”
Replying to a fan question on his Red Hand Files website, Nick Cave has discussed the impact of tinnitus, dubbing it “the musician’s curse” and calling it a “pain in the arse.” Red Hand Files has long served as a way for Cave to interact with his fans without the need for traditional social media platforms. The musician frequently answers questions from fans, offering details about his life and work. “Do you have tinnitus?” Denise from New York City asked. “What do you do when the ringing gets loud?”
“I have had it for 15 years and have adjusted but as I get older and seek more solitude the crickets choir is always with me, blaring at top volume,” she continued. “I try to appreciate their alarm as the message “we are alive” but in a still and quiet house they are very noisy guests who never leave.”
Cave replied: “Warren [Ellis] claims his tinnitus is so bad that other people can hear it. I think this is nonsense and have told him so, but he says the reason I can’t hear his tinnitus is because my own tinnitus drowns it out.”
The Bad Seeds frontman added: “Still, it’s funny I should read your question now because I am sitting here alone in my hotel room in Melbourne, having just come back from rehearsals with Warren and the band, and my very own ‘choir of crickets’ is screaming its idiotic head off. I’m debating whether I should go down to the hotel restaurant, which for some reason thinks it’s cool to play unbelievably hideous music extremely loudly while you are eating, to drown the little fuckers out.”
Cave then went on to dub tinnitus – a notoriously irritating infliction usually caused by age-related hearing loss or an ear injury – the “musician’s curse”. “Mine is actually pretty manageable most of the time,” he wrote. “It comes and goes, and only really kicks off when I am playing live music, which now I come to think of it is most of the time. An ear specialist once told me there was not much I could do other than to ‘love my tinnitus’ — and then charged me three hundred quid. But, you know, I don’t love my tinnitus, I don’t love my tinnitus at all, it’s a pain in the arse.”
Cave continued: “So, I feel for you, Denise, sitting there in your solitude, with your tinnitus for company, and I don’t really have any advice for you, other than to say, if it is any consolation, that not only my cricket choir is singing, loud and very clear, but Warren’s is too, and Larry’s and Colin’s (Greenwood), and Wendy’s and Janet’s and T Jae’s — all our dreary crickets singing their moronic and endless serenade back to you, you wonderful, tortured person, in your quiet but noisy house in New York City.”
“Don’t try calling a tinnitus helpline,” he concluded, “It just keeps on ringing.” Nick Cave has previously used Red Hand Files to offer advice on finding inspiration and using routine to one’s advantage.
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