Nick Cave’s torment as another son dies
New sorrow for Bad Seeds star
SINGER Nick Cave has suffered the heartbreaking loss of a second son, announcing yesterday that Jethro had died at the age of 31.
The loss of his eldest boy comes seven years after Arthur, 15, a twin, suffered fatal injuries when he fell from a cliff near the family’s home in Brighton, East Sussex.
In a statement, the 64-year-old Bad Seeds frontman, known for hits such as Into My Arms and Where The Wild Roses Grow, said: “With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away.
“We would be grateful for family privacy at this time.”
Jethro, who had worked as an actor and model, had recently been jailed for a violent attack on his mother, Beau Lazenby, at her home in Melbourne, Australia. He had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He grew up in Australia and did not meet his father until he was around seven or eight years old.
In 2008, Cave said: “It was a difficult time, but it turned out great in the end. To my eternal regret, I didn’t make much contact with Jethro in the early years, but I now have a great relationship with him.”
Jethro said in 2012: “It didn’t start off that great, having all this s*** with my dad and being in his shadow.”
Cave and his wife Susie Bick, 55, were devastated at the loss of Arthur, whose twin Earl, 21, is now an actor.
An inquest heard Arthur had taken LSD before the fall. The coroner ruled that the death was accidental.
Cave wrote about the “vastness” of his grief and said he felt Arthur with him all the time. He added: “I hear him talk to me, parent me, guide me, though he may not be there.”
The musician moved to Los Angeles with his wife because “Brighton had just become too sad”.
He later said: “We did, however, return once we realised that, regardless of where we lived, we just took our sadness with us.”