How Nick Cave Turned Down MTV With Some Classy Writing

Nick Cave turned down an MTV award — with a letter.

I love a great letter.

In 1996, Nick Cave sub­mit­ted a peti­tion to the MTV Video Music Awards demand­ing the video for his duet with Kylie Minogue be removed from con­sid­er­a­tion for the Best Male Artist award.

21 Oct 96
To all those at MTV,

I would like to start by thank­ing you all for the sup­port you have giv­en me over recent years and I am both grate­ful and flattered by the nom­in­a­tions that I have received for Best Male Artist. The air play giv­en to both the Kylie Minogue and P. J. Harvey duets from my latest album Murder Ballads has not gone unnoticed and has been greatly appre­ci­ated. So again my sin­cere thanks.

Having said that, I feel that it’s neces­sary for me to request that my nom­in­a­tion for best male artist be with­drawn and fur­ther­more any awards or nom­in­a­tions for such awards that may arise in later years be presen­ted to those who feel more com­fort­able with the com­pet­it­ive nature of these award cere­mon­ies. I myself, do not. I have always been of the opin­ion that my music is unique and indi­vidu­al and exists bey­ond the realms inhab­ited by those who would reduce things to mere meas­ur­ing. I am in com­pet­i­tion with no-one.

My rela­tion­ship with my muse is a del­ic­ate one at the best of times and I feel that it is my duty to pro­tect her from influ­ences that may offend her fra­gile nature.

She comes to me with the gift of song and in return I treat her with the respect I feel she deserves — in this case this means not sub­ject­ing her to the indig­nit­ies of judge­ment and com­pet­i­tion. My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not har­ness her to this tum­brel — this bloody cart of severed heads and glit­ter­ing prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May aban­don me com­pletely!

So once again, to the people at MTV, I appre­ci­ate the zeal and energy that was put behind my last record, I truly do and say thank you and again I say thank you but no … no thank you.

Yours sin­cerely,
Nick Cave.

The let­ter seems to have fallen on deaf ears, though, since Nick Cave was still nom­in­ated for Best Male Artist for his duet Where the Wild Roses Grow with Kylie Minogue. C’est la vie.

Read also: William Faulkner on Writing From the Heart