Monty Don has shared his love for Nick Cave in a new interview, and revealed his emotional response to the ‘Ghosteen’ album.
The BBC Gardeners’ World presenter and TV garden writer took part in a new interview with The Times, and shared his admiration for the singer-songwriter’s 2019 album.
The record came as his 17th album with The Bad Seeds, and marked the follow-up to acclaimed 2016 LP ‘Skeleton Tree. In it, Cave puts forward some of his most emotionally vulnerable and melancholic material and tackles themes of loss, existentialism, faith and death.
At the time of its release, it was described by NME as “the most devastatingly accurate accounts of grief that you’ll ever listen to” in a glowing five-star review.
Now, Monty Don has shared his fondness for the record too, and said it is one that he finds particularly moving. When asked by the outlet what was the last music that made him cry, he responded: “‘Ghosteen’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Why would you not cry?”
“I think it’s unbearably beautiful and I’m really glad to listen to it, but I think it’s very sad. I’m a great crier,” he added.
He also went on to share his appreciation for Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen – naming most of their work as containing the lyrics he wishes he could have written – as well as naming The Beatles as having the music that cheers him up.
Outside of music, he also discussed his love of TV and film, naming The French Connection, The Godfather, The Deer Hunter and A Hard Day’s Night, among his favourite movies, and Slow Horses, The Franchise and Family Guy among his top-rated series.
For Don, the interview comes as he recently shared a health update with fans, explaining the circumstances that led to him being taken to the hospital and forced to cancel a number of shows earlier this week.
“I’m so sorry to have disappointed all those people who were going to come and see me in Exeter, Truro, Bath and Nottingham. But on Friday afternoon I was rushed to A&E. I was kept in at the hospital over Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and had to have drips and all the rest of it,” he said on Instagram.
He also added that he was on the road to recovery, and spending a few more days recuperating at home before returning to his schedule.
As for Cave, the artist shared his new album ‘Wild God’ earlier this year, which was given a four-star review by NME. “Bad Seeds records are infamously loaded with gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this ain’t a poptastic LOLfest, and still coloured with the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered,” it read.
“But never has Cave been so freewheelin’ than on the giddy ‘Frogs’, ‘Jumping for love and the opening sky above’ as ‘Kris Kristofferson walks by kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed for years’. With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.”
More recently, it was confirmed that the record had been shortlisted for the 20th annual Australian Music Prize.
