Nick Cave receives Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art: “We are the guardians of the soul of the world”

Nick Cave has received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art. Check out photos from the induction ceremony below.

The iconic singer-songwriter was given the doctorate earlier this week, and the award is the highest recognition the College can bestow upon an individual to celebrate their exceptional accomplishments.

Taking place yesterday (Tuesday September 23), the Honorary Doctorate from the art and design university was presented by Chancellor of the RCA, Sir Jony Ive, during the ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall. The event also saw over a thousand students graduated from the RCA in the fields of Design and Communication.

Taking to the podium, Cave made a rousing speech to commemorate the occasion, and shared his thanks with the university.

“Through my associations with art students I’ve learnt a lot about the nature of art,” he said. “Not just about the idea of perseverance, and application, and showing up, but rather something about the concept of authenticity. I learnt that art itself and in my case songwriting has a remarkable ability to be able to reach inside us and to reveal our true nature.”

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for this great honour, and to congratulate everyone here,” he added. “We are the guardians of the soul of the world. And this role is extremely acutely necessary at this time. So go forth.”

Check out an official photo from the university below, along with an Instagram post from his wife Susie, which shows the two of them standing together at the ceremony.

Others who were bestowed Honorary Fellowships from the Royal College of Art at the 2025 ceremony included Sunil Gupta, Professor Rachel Cooper OBE (posthumously), Marion Deuchars, Dr Sigrid Rausing, and Ed Williams.

For Cave, the appearance at the RCA came just one day after he celebrated his birthday. The ‘Red Right Hand’ singer turned 67 on Monday (September 22), and taking to Instagram again, his wife Susie shared a photo to mark the occasion.

“Happy Birthday ( suit ) to the Love of my Life my beautiful Husband,” she wrote in the caption.

The Honorary Doctorate comes just days after Cave and The Bad Seeds announced a huge homecoming gig at Brighton’s Preston Park next year.

They’ll play there on July 31 2026, and the date is so far their only UK headline show of 2026. “I am thrilled beyond words to return to my beloved Brighton with The Bad Seeds to play Preston Park,” Cave said announcing the show. “It’s a homecoming! It’s going to be big, bad and beautiful. An epic show!!!”

You can buy tickets here.

The news of live shows comes in celebration of his acclaimed 2024 album ‘Wild God’.

That record was given a four-star review by NME, which read: “Bad Seeds records are infamously loaded with gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this ain’t a poptastic LOLfest, and still coloured with the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered.

“But never has Cave been so freewheelin’ than on the giddy ‘Frogs’, “Jumping for love and the opening sky above” as “Kris Kristofferson walks by kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed for years“. With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.”

Speaking to NME in 2023, Cave opened up about similar topics explored in the record, and discussed whether he thought good art could come from nihilism.

“I don’t know what comes from nihilism. I don’t think art can come from nihilism at all. I don’t know what comes from nihilism. I don’t think art can come from nihilism at all,” he said. “It seems to me that there is some correlation between transgressive and bad behaviour and good art. It’s no accident that the really great stuff is often made by the most problematic people,” he added.

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