James Ellroy on Nick Cave

In an open letter to his fans, Nick wrote about his appreciation for the author James Ellroy. What follows here is rather upsetting in this light.

London May related:

I attended James Ellroy's reading and book signing that took place at Border's Books on October 8 1997, in Santa Monica, CA. During the Q&A section, I asked Ellroy about music and Nick Cave. His heated retort went like this:

"I met Nick Cave-and he was a big bore. He was number 7 on my list of the 8 most boring people I have ever met. He was also number 8 on my list of the 8 most pretentious and self-absorbed people I have ever met. I hate Rock and Roll and to rockers like Nick Cave I advise them to grow up and stop wearing black"

I sat stunned. Ellroy immediately jumped to the next question before I could reply.


Leslie noted:

Found this quote in an on-line article on James Ellroy, formerly Nick's crime writer of choice (and former fan of Nick, despite an oft-professed dislike of rock):

He has since become celebrated both for his writing and for his public provocations (he hates the blues: "Black people whining about their lives," and country: "Rednecks whining about their lives," and rock 'n' roll: "Punk kids rebelling against their parents" and film noir of the 1950s: "A lot of it is preposterous!")

Looks like he's not much on popular music in general. More fool he. Anyway, for the whole interesting but unpretty picture, go to: http://www.canoe.ca/JamBooksFeatures/ellroy_james.html

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