quote:

Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave know best. Although I wear a lot of jeans, I've been told that Nick Cave doesn't own a pair and wouldn't be caught dead in denim. The thing is, I think Leonard Cohen was Nick Cave's style hero too. I'm the third generation.

Second opinions can vary. I passed Leonard Cohen between two tents at a festival in Barcelona and he complimented my hat. Those were the only words he said to me: "Nice hat", so that was a big moment for me. In reality though, it was a stupid looking hat. It was a fedora that I bought in Lisbon. You know when you go on vacation, you buy something you think you'll be able to pull off back home? Like when you go to Paris and you come back trying to pull off the beret? It was that kind of thing. So I bought this black fedora in Lisbon, I wore it for a few days. Leonard Cohen says, "Nice hat." Then I get home, my wife sees it, and says, "You look like an idiot." I think Leonard thought that too but he just felt sorry for me.

Sometimes you have to wear what you want. My glasses are Menrads by Selima Optique*. I got clear frames, and I then noticed a lot of older men wear these. Maybe I should get something hipper. My wife is not crazy about them. She has her opinions and she's usually very forgiving of my fashion choices but my glasses and fedora were not to her liking. I had to give up the hat, but I'm sticking with the glasses.

If you get up on stage, prepare to take a beating. I actually used to wear shin guards underneath my suit because I would go off the stage and climb over the railings so often that I would kill my shins. I've stopped now because I felt like an idiot wearing shin guards on stage, now I just take the beating. If I'm gonna go jumping off stage I deserve to be beat up a little bit.