Nick Cave says that when you are ‘broken apart’ by grief you ‘come back tougher’ as he opens up about the deaths of sons Arthur and Jethro

Nick Cave has opened up about the death of his sons Arthur and Jethro as he spoke of how grief can bring you back ‘tougher’.

The Australian musician and actor, 66, tragically lost two of his sons in the space of seven years.

In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time and ‘freaking out’ before falling 60ft from a cliff near his home in Brighton.

Seven years later, in 2022, Nick’s son Jethro, 31, who had schizophrenia and battled drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after he was released from jail and two months after violently assaulting his own mother.

Asked of his grief, Nick told Mojo magazine on Tuesday: ‘There’s a sort of resilience, I’ve really noticed this in my wife. When you are broken apart, you come back tougher. 

In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time and ‘freaking out’ before falling 60ft from a cliff near his home in Brighton (Pictured are Nick with his twin sons Arthur [right] and Earl [left])

‘When the worst happens, other things don’t feel as important any more.’ 

The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star, known for hits such as Into My Arms and One More Time With Feeling, moved to Los Angeles soon after Arthur died with his wife Susie and Arthur’s twin Earl because they were ‘triggered too much’ by living just down the road from where it happened. 

The tragedy was widely reported and Nick said previously that this resulted in him being ‘forced to grieve publicly’. 

An inquest into Arthur’s death heard that the teenager, who also had cannabis in his system, was ‘completely disorientated’ as he stumbled off a cliff into the sheer Ovingdean Gap near Brighton. 

Police said the teenager was tripping out so badly he ‘couldn’t feel what was real and what wasn’t real any more’ and in a final message to a friend he said: ‘Where am I? Where am I?’. 

In the minutes before the teenager died he was spotted by motorists as he ‘zig-zagged’ along the grass on the edge of the cliff before climbing over a safety fence and toppling over, it was said.

Another of the popstar’s sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in Australia in May 2022 just days after being released from jail.

The 32-year-old had been behind bars for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’.

The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star moved to Los Angeles soon after Arthur died with his wife Susie and Arthur’s twin Earl (Nick and Susie pictured in January 2023)

An inquest into Arthur’s death heard that the teenager, who also had cannabis in his system, was ‘completely disorientated’ as he stumbled off a cliff (Pictured are Nick, Susie, Arthur and Earl in 2007)

Police said Arthur (pictured) was tripping out so badly he ‘couldn’t feel what was real and what wasn’t real any more’

Speaking days before his death in court, Jethro’s lawyer revealed he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement. 

The troubled man, who had spent years in and out of custody as his life spiralled out of control in a haze of illicit drugs, had been facing more criminal charges when he was found dead in a $100-a-night motel in Melbourne.

Speaking on his blog The Red Hand Files, where Nick answers questions from fans, in June, he replied to a woman whose daughter was killed.

He wrote: ‘A parent should never have to bury their child, it makes no sense, it sits outside the natural order of things.

Another of the popstar’s sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in Australia in May 2022 just days after being released from jail (Nick and Jethro pictured in 2017)

The 32-year-old (pictured in 2010)had been behind bars for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’

‘Yet here we are, you and me, living within these ghastly vacuums left behind by those we have lost.

‘I love your honesty in laying bare the biblical-sized fury we sometimes feel toward a world that has the audacity to keep on turning, regardless of our suffering. 

‘How dare the world be so beautiful, we think. These are the divergent feelings of grief.’