Photo by Ellie Pritts
Nick Cave was involved in one of our favorite stories this year when a New Zealand teen requested a selfie despite having no idea who he is. Now, the Bad Seeds singer is the subject of another humorous anecdote — this time of his own doing.
The story comes from a recent GQ profile and involves Cave’s “conceptual art prank” to have a bronze statue erected in his birthplace, the small Australian country town of Warracknabeal. As Spin points out, Cave conceived the ridiculous idea early in his career, when it didn’t make an iota of sense.
“There was a kind of perverse allure to the whole thing of having a statue in a town where everyone was, ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’” Cave said. “The idea was to make the statue, have it rejected by the town, and dump it in the desert — this Planet of the Apes type of scenario, the desert eventually swallowing it up.”
(Read: The 20 Worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs)
Apparently, the joke’s on him, as the town has recently become interested in the idea. Of course, now that Cave obviously deserves the statue, he’s no longer interested. Not to be deterred, the town has gone so far as to create a prototype. According to GQ, it depicts Cave “with long hair and wearing nothing but a loincloth, heroically posed on a rearing stallion, his left arm brandishing what Cave describes as ‘this sort of eternal flame.'” See a photo of it below.
If there’s anything to be learned from this story, it’s to be careful what you wish for — even in jest — because it might actually happen someday. If the sculpture does get constructed, however, at least there’s less possibility that nearby teens won’t know who Cave is.
