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