Do you think it’s ok to be paid shit tons of money for your ability to make a dress? kick a ball about? Paint a picture? Make some music? More so than the multitude of ”services” that enable this to happen? I love you Nick but I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the ”celebrity” culture. On the scale of life it’s fucking bullshit. Hope I can’t predict your answer.

Dear Carol,

I woke up early today to write a Red Hand File. I’ve been in the studio all week mixing a recording of the recent, magnificently deranged, Bad Seeds Paris concert, and I haven’t had time to do one. The first question I was greeted with, Carol, as the birds started up their happy chirping outside my bedroom window on this beautiful spring morning, was your grumbly little letter about ‘celebrities’ being grossly overpaid.

Are we being paid too much? Maybe. My own policy in these matters is to accept the money when it comes, as long as it does not compromise the integrity of the work itself. I understand that people form deep personal connections with my songs, so I try to preserve their essence and am cautious around their exploitation. Generally this approach works, but sometimes it falls short. A lot of my work, such as The Red Hand Files, is not monetised. I think this is one of the reasons I find the Files so rewarding, because the benefits to me are spiritual rather than remunerative.

But, that aside, Carol, and maybe it’s because it’s early and I haven’t had a coffee yet, the dismissive characterisations of an athlete who ‘kicks a ball around,’ a designer who ‘makes a dress’ (she’s sleeping next to me), or an artist who merely ‘paints a picture,’ struck a nerve. Your letter felt a little ungenerous and seemed to contain a corrupting resentment – that kind of indignant, moral posturing where we blame others for our feelings of powerlessness. Resentment – that bitter cup of gall is not good, Carol, not for your heart, not for your soul, not for your digestion, not for anything.

There is much to feel frustrated about in this world – perhaps celebrity culture is one of them – and we can expend our heart’s energy being endlessly aggrieved, but to what end? What does it achieve? What good does it do? I love you too, Carol, and it is hard to hear you so unhappy.

I feel exceptionally fortunate to be paid for doing a job I love and I have nothing but profound gratitude for being in this privileged position. Ultimately, though, let’s agree that celebrities are probably overpaid – and this particular one, dear Carol, is now late for work!

Love, Nick

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