Cave is a rock musician who has published his lyrics and novels, and collaborated on film screenplays. He moved to first London and then Berlin with his band The Birthday Party in 1980, which disbanded in 1983. In 1984, he formed The Bad Seeds, with whom he made many studio albums.
In 1999 he curated and directed the 1999 Meltdown Festival at South Bank Centre, London.
Cave was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame at the 2007 ARIA Awards, Sydney, New South Wales, Sunday, 28 October 2007.
In late 2007, the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne hosted a major retrospective exhibition of his work including his literary, music and personal memorabilia. Other exhibitions related to his work include a 1992-1993 exhibition at The Victorian Arts Centre (now Arts Centre Melbourne) of photographs relating to a Bad Seeds tour of Europe; Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition in Copenhagen in June 2020, co-curated by Cave; and an exhibition of Cave's ceramic figures of Satan, at Sara Hildén Art Museum in Finland, from 2022 to 2023.
In 2008, Monash University awarded Cave an honorary Doctorate of Laws.
Australian Writing and Rock Music affiliation: songwriter, lyricist, vocals, piano, guitar, miscellaneous instruments (harmonica).