Nick Cave is just like the rest of us, only better

Sometimes musical artists are asked questions from their fans that the performer answers generally but also seemingly somehow disingenuous. They answer without really knowing how they might feel, so they give a response that many times is what they think the fan will want to hear. But Nick Cave was asked on his website recently how he feels about his trans fans and his answer was complex, thoughtful, and perfectly said.

Mind you, Nick Cave appears to be an intelligent person anyway. His lyrics are completely unique and his song structures still his own even though the music sounds like a track you might have heard before. But this is just part of Cave's greatness.

On Red Hand Files, Cave's website, he answers fans direct questions many times. Like Cave himself, his fans appear to be an intelligent group as well. He won't get many questions such as, "What's your favorite song?"

Nick Cave gives perfect response to question about trans rights

This month, Amelia from Baltimore asked Cave, "How do you feel about your transgender fans or trans people in general?" The question wasn't meant to trip Cave up, and Cave could have ignored the question altogether. But he didn't. And his answer was excellent.

In part, Cave wrote,

"I also have another impulse, which I hope is more common, and that is to treat everyone with equal love and respect, regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, religion or anything else. I essentially see the world as a collection of individuals, each unique in their brokenness, who have at their core a common and binding sameness of spirit. So, Amelia, although I am slightly uncertain as to where I am supposed to stand on such things, or rather why I am supposed to stand anywhere, I will say this – I love my trans fans fully and wish them the best, as I love all my fans and wish them the best. I feel toward them that same duty of care that I feel toward all those who exist within my sphere. I also wish for them to receive every right inherent to them and for them to lead lives of dignity and freedom, devoid of violence and prejudice. I wish these things as I wish them for all people."

- Nick Cave

Now, for a minute I thought of parsing Cave's paragraph to make it more visually appealing to an Audio Phix reader, but I think the readers at Audio Phix would not want that. Nick Cave's answer needs to be seen on the whole instead of easily taken out of context. In just one paragraph, he says an insane amount of perfection.

He starts with something many might say, "Everyone should be treated equally." That could be taken as a toss-away generality, but Cave clearly means what he writes and he writes the sentence so well. But then we get to classic Cave as he sees the world as individuals that are all "broken." But while we might be broken that binds us together. This is one reason Cave endears himself to his fans; He is just like one of his fans and sees them as a unique individual.

But then Cave goes one step further and admits that he is "uncertain" as to where he is "supposed" to stand on topics such as trans rights. But that isn't because Cave doesn't think trans rights should be important to the trans person, but simply because Cave doesn't want to conceive of why anyone who isn't trans themselves wants to impose their narrow views on the trans world.

Nick Cave's honesty is refreshing. He doesn't care about selling hundreds of millions of records. He just wants to be himself. Because of this, his fans are a lot less fleeting than those who might simply like the next wildly pop fashion.

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