Nick Cave is a fan of Brooklyn’s hip hop trio, Flatbush Zombies, so much so that he’s made a song with them. In his recent edition of Red Hand Files — Nick Cave’s personal AMA platform — Cave answered a fan’s question about how he feels about artist merch.
He began by letting the fan know that as he answered he was, “wearing an ancient Sonic Youth Goo T-shirt from 1990”.
He then said he owned a beautiful Flatbush Zombies T-shirt that he “bought around the release of their first album”. Then Nick Cave launched into how he’s tried to work with the group.
“A few years ago the Zombies and I attempted a collaboration and I sent them my version of the T. Rex classic, ‘Cosmic Dancer’.
“They said they “could not relate to it” but they radically pitch-shifted my voice, sampled it and used it anyway, as the percussive heartbeat to an extraordinarily wild and fucked-up piece of hip-hop that neither of us released.”
Going back to the initial question, Cave continues discussing some of his favourite artist merch. Making the cut for the Nick Cave collection is: a T-shirt that says “Beyoncé Wasn’t Built in a Day” [we love], an AC/DC shirt, and a shirt from one of Elvis Presley’s final performances.
Nick Cave ties off this mesmerising glance into his life with this:
“So, Piers, to answer your question would I wear a pair of merch socks myself? The answer is well, yeah, I do – when I do Jane Fonda’s Workout with my wife, I wear a pair of Radiohead compression socks, RiRi sweatpants, a Leather Nun T-shirt and a Dire Straits headband.
“I am a star jumping, butt clenching dervish of banality and exploitation. Look at me now!”
Well, then. Good for Nick.
