Nick Cave opens up about the tragic death of his two sons: ‘This is actually quite difficult to talk about’

Nick Cave has opened up about tragic death of his two sons. 

The Bad Seeds musician, 66, has lost two children in the last 10 years.

In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time, before falling almost 20 metres from a cliff near his home in Brighton, England.

In 2022 his son Jethro, 32, who had schizophrenia and battled drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after he was released from jail and two months after violently assaulting his own mother.

In a promo for ABC’s Australian Story, the musician told interviewer Leigh Sales that he no longer values art above all else after burying his two sons. 

‘That idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn’t apply to me anymore,’ he confessed.

Later in the clip, as he delves into the topic of his sons further, he begins to choke up.

‘I’m sorry this is actually quite difficult to talk about,’ he said as the emotion overcame him.

Speaking to Leigh Sales on Australian Story this week, the 66-year-old musician was visibly upset as he discussed the deaths of his sons Arthur, 15, in 2015 and Jethro, 32, in 2022

Cave has previously said ‘there can’t help but be feelings of culpability’ over the deaths of his sons because it is ‘against nature’ to bury a child.

‘I think it’s something that people who lose children feel regardless of the situation, simply because the one thing you’re supposed to do is not let your children die,’ he told The Guardian earlier this year.

‘Forget that. The one thing you’re supposed to do is protect your children.’

Cave’s son Arthur (pictured) tragically fell to his death from a cliff near Brighton after taking LSD in July 2015

Jethro Lazenby (pictured) had been behind bars for attacking his mother before his death in May 2022

Addressing if he feels culpable because drugs were involved in Arthur’s death, he said: ‘There could be some element of that, yep.

‘Look, these things are in our DNA, they’re inherited. I don’t want to make any assumptions about Arthur, who was just a young boy. It’s not like he was into drugs.

Cave’s 15-year-old son Arthur tragically died in July 2015 after plummeting from a cliff during an LSD session with a friend. 

An inquest into his death heard that the teenager, who also had cannabis in his system, was ‘completely disorientated’ as he stumbled off a cliff into the sheer Ovingdean Gap near Brighton, UK.

Another of the popstar’s other sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in May 2022 just days after being released from jail.

The 32-year-old had been behind bars for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’.

Speaking days before his death in court, Jethro’s lawyer revealed he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement. 

The troubled man, who had spent years in and out of custody as his life spiralled out of control in a haze of illicit drugs, had been facing more criminal charges when he was found dead in a $100-a-night motel in Melbourne.