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In 1992, while working on Henry's Dream, his seventh studio album with The Bad Seeds, Nick Cave hit upon the idea of recording an album of murder ballads, songs which explored the fatal consequences of 'crimes of passion'. Over the next three years he began writing original songs and curating traditional standards for the project, which was earmarked for completion as the follow-up to his 1994 album Let Love In. Taking into account the cinematic nature of the songs he was compiling, Cave also began approaching friends and former lovers - PJ Harvey, Anita Lane, Shane McGowan, and Warren Ellis - to guest on the record.
During this period, in an inspired but decidedly left-field move, Cave contacted Neighbours actress-turned-pop princess Kylie Minogue to see if she might be interested in collaborating with him on a song called Where The Wild Roses Grow, setting into motion one of the most unlikely creative unions of the decade. Or any other decade for that matter.
The two artists look back upon their "audacious" collaboration in a new Netflix documentary series focussing on the life and career of Kylie Minogue, with Cave recalling the horror with which their partnership was greeted by the squeaky clean Australian pop star's most devoted fans.
By way of an introduction to the pair's collaboration in the documentary series, there's archive audio of of a news reporter explaining, "If Kylie Minogue represents the Australian dream, then Nick Cave is surely the Australian nightmare", telling those unfamiliar with the singer that the former Birthday Party frontman has attracted "a cult following with his twisted lyrics and darkly wasted image." By her own admission, when Kylie Minogue was first approached by Cave, her immediate reaction was "Who?"
"I was not the demographic of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds fan club," she acknowledges.
"It was a strange thing with Kylie, because even though she had mass appeal, she had everything but credibility," Cave reflects. "And I looked at her because I had credibility, but not much else. But there was terrible opposition from management and so forth, that this is just a fucked-up idea... which it was."
Cave goes on to describe working with Minogue as a "beam of light" illuminating the "dark forces" of his band, but remembers that not all Kylie fans looked fondly upon their collaboration, which was released in October 1995 as the first single from Murder Ballads.
"I remember doing [British TV show] Top Of The Pops," he says. "The people that turned up to my concerts were psychos - we would be taking iron bars and scissors and knives off people in the front row - so I know about a dangerous audience. But I've never experienced anything like Kylie Minogue's audience. They were terrifying... just these sort of monstrous, awful teenage girls. They did not like me. They did not like me to go near their princess. And these little girls say, 'You fucking old bastard. What are you doing you horrible old cunt?' They were just evil."
Cave recalls that when he put his arm around Kylie during the show, her fans would be "running their fingers across their throats" and threatening him with untold violence.
"Then [the show's director] would turn the cameras towards them and they'd be like, [all smiles], Yay!'"
"Evil, evil people," he concludes.
Where The Wild Roses Grow ended up winning in three catagories - Single of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Release - at the 1996 Australian Recording Industry Association awards.
