Nick Cave has defended himself after a fan questioned his attendance at King Charles III’s forthcoming coronation.
On Saturday (6 May), the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II will be crowned King of the United Kingdom, while his wife, Camilla, will be crowned Queen.
Among the high-profile guests expected to attend the historic event is Australian singer Cave, who has justified his appearance by saying he holds “an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals”.
In the latest edition of his self-published Red Hand Files newsletter, where he answers fan-sent questions, the rocker revealed that he has received several hostile messages questioning his supposed support of the monarchy.
“Why the f*** are you going to the King’s coronation?” one asked.
“I am not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican for that matter; what I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of your age,” Cave wrote.
“Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest.”
He continued: “I guess what I am trying to say is that, beyond the interminable but necessary debates about the abolition of the monarchy, I hold an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals – the strangeness of them, the deeply eccentric nature of the whole affair that so perfectly reflects the unique weirdness of Britain itself.”
He added: “I’m just drawn to that kind of thing – the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, the awe-inspiring.”
