The revelation of King Ink

As the author of some of the most funereal songs ever written, it's hardly surprising that Nick Cave has spent a lot of time thinking about the soundtrack to his own funeral.

But it's not just a matter of his fascination with the darker side of existence. For King Ink, it's also the perspective of a passionate, omnivorous listener, always ready to spin a new record or an old vinyl.

So when someone asked him about it on The Red Hand Files, the site where he answers fans' emails directly, the singer behind “Your Funeral… My Trial” already had an answer ready. And a very clear one.

It all started with a message from a fan who wrote that he had just lost his father and had organized an Elvis-themed funeral for him. “No, we didn't wear white jumpsuits,” he wrote, “but the coffin had photos and lyrics from Elvis, and we played his songs for him.” Then came the question for Cave: “I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this on The Red Hand Files, but which songs would you want played at your funeral?”

“Your letter moved me deeply,” the Australian singer-songwriter replied. “I'm sure your father would have been happy with his Elvis-themed funeral. Thinking about it, I'd be thrilled to have one like that myself – to be sent off into the next world by the voice of the greatest rock 'n' roll singer of all time. 'Kentucky Rain', that's what I'd want, 'Kentucky Rain' and 'How Great Thou Art': Elvis singing gospel, with heaven and all its angels listening in. It was a beautiful thing to do for your father. It sounds like you really did a wonderful job.”

“Kentucky Rain”, written by Eddie Rabbitt and Dick Heard, tells the story of a man who, on a cold and rainy night, goes out looking for the woman who has just left him, leaving him staring at the empty space in the bed. Elvis recorded it during his two weeks of sessions at American Sound Studio in Memphis, which in 1969 yielded the material for two successful albums: “From Elvis In Memphis” and “From Memphis To Vegas/ From Vegas To Memphis”.

Curiously, “Kentucky Rain” didn't end up on either album, but was released as a single, reaching number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It would only later appear on reissues: it was included on the 2000 reissue of “From Elvis In Memphis”, after first surfacing on the 1970 compilation “Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1”.

In 1978, the year Presley died, Rabbitt himself released his own version of “Kentucky Rain” on his solo album “Variations”. 

In truth, though, Nick Cave had already answered the same question before, giving a completely different response. The Australian artist had in fact named a song by Kanye West, “I Am A God”, as the ideal soundtrack for his funeral. On that note, last January a German fan, Jörg, put this question to Cave: “They say you should separate the art from the artist. I can't do that. My childhood heroes have turned into monsters. Now I read that Kanye West's song 'I Am A God' is supposed to be played at your funeral. How on earth can you listen to that song without seeing the filth of a human being that Kanye has become?”

With great composure and a lengthy argument, the 67-year-old singer-songwriter from Melbourne answered his correspondent: “I have received numerous messages of strong disapproval regarding my love of Kanye West's music. A great deal of time and energy has been spent condemning Nazism, antisemitism, the selling of swastika t-shirts, and even the act of forcing his girlfriend to pose naked on the Grammys red carpet. On these points, it seems we can all agree. However, I would like to question the idea that art and artist can be separated… When we talk about Kanye West,” Cave continues in his message, “we're talking about an artist who knows how to turn inner chaos into something sublime. That is art's greatest gift: the ability to extract beauty from disorder, to transcend our flawed nature. That's what Kanye does. That's what I try to do. And that's what drives every true artist. Any human being is capable of any action. Humanity is imperfect, but it is also capable of creating wonders – things that are beautiful, inspiring, wild, daring. We can choose to see them. However hateful and repugnant certain thoughts expressed by Kanye may be,” the Melbourne singer-songwriter concludes, “and however persistent a scourge antisemitism remains, I will keep looking for beauty wherever it appears. I don't want to sacrifice the best of us in an attempt to punish the worst. We can't afford to.”

Recently, Nick Cave also sent fans a message centred on the theme of hope, in contrast to the self-destructive impulses that have marked long stretches of his career. Through his web channel “The Red Hand Files”, the bard of Melbourne wrote: “Hope is an emotional temperament that encourages the heart to be active, it is a condition, a state of mind, an aura of being. It is an act of the imagination, both courageous and inventive, a vitality that inspires us to take innovative action in defence of the world. Hope is essential to our survival and our flourishing”.

Referring then to his 2022 autobiographical book, titled “Faith, Hope And Carnage” and centred on the reflections and implications that the death of his fifteen-year-old son Arthur in 2015 had on his life, the Melbourne songwriter continued: “In ‘Faith, Hope and Carnage’ I wrote: ‘Hope is optimism with a broken heart’. That means hope has a mature understanding of the painful or corrupted nature of things, but rises up to engage with the world even though it is still there. We understand that our demoralisation becomes the most serious obstacle to improving the world. In its active form, hope is a supreme gesture of love, a radical and daring duty, whereas despair is a stagnant refusal of life itself. Hope becomes the energy of change”.

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03/03/2026