Nick Cave Denied a Morrissey Collaboration Over an ‘Anti-Woke Screed’

The collective hopes of fans longing for a collaboration between Nick Cave and Morrissey have been dashed, with the former revealing he turned down the opportunity to do so last year.

Cave’s revelation arrived by way of his Red Hand Files website, where he responded to a fan asking if he had ever met the former vocalist of The Smiths.

Labelling Morrissey a “complex and divisive figure, someone who takes more than a little pleasure in p–sing people off” and “probably the best lyricist of his generation,” Cave admitted that he had not had the chance to cross paths with the singer, adding that may be why he remains a fan.

However, Cave also added that Morrissey had approached him via email in 2024 to perform on a new song that he had written. “I would have been happy to do so, however, while the song he sent was quite lovely, it began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro,” Cave explained. 

“It also seemed that he didn’t want me to actually sing on the song, but deliver, over the top of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written.”

While Cave did not share any specific details in regard to the lyrical content of Morrissey’s track, he explained that it was enough for him to “politely decline” the offer.

“Although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing,” Cave explained “I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve.”

Morrissey’s most recent solo album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, arrived back in 2020. In November, the singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been shelved so far because of his various controversial statements. 

“As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”