Leigh Sales has apologised to Nick Cave in an emotional interview after the Australian music legend spoke about him on the anniversary of his eldest son’s death.
The awkward situation arose when the veteran ABC presenter interviewed the 66-year-old rock legend for an episode of Australian Story, which aired on Monday night.
Cave discussed the grief of losing his eldest son Jethro, 31, in May 2022, when he revealed that the episode was filmed on the second anniversary of his son’s death.
Jethro, who suffered from schizophrenia and struggled with drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after being released from prison.
He died seven years after the Australian-born Bad Seeds frontman lost his youngest son, Arthur, 15.
“Today is the anniversary of Jethro’s death,” Cave explained.
The Sales department immediately apologized for the unfortunate timing.
“I’m sorry this interview falls on the anniversary of your son’s death,” she said.
Rock legend Nick Cave (pictured) discussed his grief over the loss of his eldest son Jethro, 31, as he revealed the episode was filmed on the anniversary of his son’s death.
Cave said it’s difficult to do interviews when you’re there because the conversation quickly turns to his sons.
“It’s weird that we jump right into this and I… it’s not your fault,” Cave replied.
Cave spoke about his grief over the loss of Arthur, while the father of four shared how he overcame his grief.
Arthur first used LSD before jumping 60 feet off a cliff near his home in Brighton, England in 2015.
“I understood the process because I had been through it,” Cave said.
“There is an initial catastrophic event that we eventually absorb or rearrange so that we become beings of loss,” he said.
Despite the personal tragedies, he was able to find a different perspective on life, which allowed him to see the world differently.
“I mean, this is a pretty complicated issue, but the void that was created was kind of meaning that found its way into that void in all sorts of different ways,” Cave said.
‘[It] has allowed me to see the world in a different way [and] ‘Given me much more compassion for the human condition’.
Cave said it was a “counterfactual reaction” that made him less bitter.
Veteran ABC presenter Leigh Sales (pictured), who interviewed Cave as part of an episode for the ABC program Australian Story, immediately apologised for the unfortunate timing
“It did the opposite: I became much more connected to people in general,” he said.
Cave also spoke about how he turned to the Christian faith, which he developed in his early years after becoming consumed by his “own genius.”
“I was always religious by nature, even as a child, but there was no need for it. I was a kind of drug addict for a couple of decades,” he said.
‘I think after Arthur’s death I wasn’t so much angry about those things, or rejecting them anymore. I just felt a slow movement toward a religious life.’
I have found [that] ‘An exceptionally useful and enriching event in my life’.
Jethro (pictured right), who struggled with drug addiction, died in Melbourne in 2022, two days after being released from prison (pictured left Nick Cave)
Cave went on to say that while he “lives in a rock ‘n’ roll world,” he no longer struggles with drugs and alcohol.
“I don’t feel any need to go back to that way of life,” he said.
Cave said that “art surpasses all” no longer applies to him after the deaths of Arthur and Jethro.
“I just saw the folly of it and the shameful complacency of the whole thing. It made my priorities change,” he said.
‘I am a father, a husband and a kind of human being of the world. These are much more important to me than the idea of being an ‘artist’.’
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