Nick Cave was nominated for Best Male Artist at MTV’s Video Music Awards back in 1996. Rather than accept the nomination gracefully or even hope for a win, Cave took it upon himself to write a now infamous letter to the program requesting to withdraw from the awards ceremony. “My muse is not a horse,” he wrote, “and I am in no horse race.”
Fast forward to 2015, and Australian pop royalty Kylie Minogue has read the letter as part of a video series put together by Letters Live, the live show spinoff from literary correspondence website Letters of Note. Minogue and Cave famously dated, and the song he was nominated for was their duet – Where The Wild Roses grow, from the 1996 album Murder Ballads.
Watching Minogue try not to smirk as she reads Cave’s deepest quotes is a joy in itself. “I have always been of the opinion that my music is unique and individual, and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those reduce things to mere measuring. I am in competition with no one.”
Coming from Minogue the letter reads as comical, but it makes more sense if you imagine Cave sitting down and writing it in irreverent rage that MTV would even consider bestowing him with such an embarrassing title like best male artist. It kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if Cave was nominated today… I can imagine Nick Cave reading Miley for filth Minaj-style.
Check out the video below: