Nick Cave wrestles with a ‘Wild God’
Interview with Ann Powers (NPR)
Is Nick Cave a holy man? After a decade that transformed the Australian-born rock titan from post-punk’s louchest fallen angel into a dignified seeker whose courage and wisdom resounds beyond musical boundaries, many would say yes.” Ann Powers’s NPR interview with Nick Cave is worth your time.
“I would say I’m in the process of conversion,” Cave told Powers. “Moving in that direction, but far from converted, shall we say.”
Ann Powers: You’ve been fascinated with the story of Jesus, and talk often about how that story — and the beautiful language of the New Testament — has inspired you. I have a small detail question: I’m very curious about which version of the New Testament you favor.
Nick Cave: I am a King James guy. Only because I’m sort of a traditionalist in a sense. There’s actually probably better translations, and more accurate, certainly. I like the King James version because it’s possibly inaccurate. And it’s very mysterious. And I don’t quite understand a lot of it. And attempts to make things more comprehensible, I think, strip something away from the language of Judeo Christian religion that I’m really attracted to.
I find it very difficult to spend much time in the Anglican Church, even though I try, because it’s been stripped of its mystery. And in an attempt to be relevant and kind of down with current ideas about things, it’s lost its essential weirdness and mystery. And that’s the stuff that I [am] particularly attracted to with Christianity: It’s weird.