Nick Cave's response to a 10-year-old fan is the sweetest thing you'll read this week

The Red Hand Files is a site where Nick Cave replies to questions from fans. His first response started in September 2018 - last month he answered seven questions on the site, and even shares personal pictures, each answer answered in a thoughtful manner. What more could a fan want?

Ptolemy, a 10-year-old fan of Nick Cave, asked the musician on The Red Hand Files site, "I am 10 and have been surrounded by and listened to your music as long as I can remember. I saw you in Hobart in January 2017 and I’ll be there again to see you in January 2019. None of my friends listen to anything cool, interesting or beautiful. How will having your music in my life so early on affect me, and have you got any advice for me? Thank you."

The Australian fan will likely cherish the musician tenfold after Cave wrote a near tear-worthy response. Firstly, Cave reiterates that he remembers the young fan from one of his conversations talks in Australia, and writes, "I thought more about the question after the show, and I remember wishing I had answered it better".

Cave gives tender encouragement to Ptolemy, "Listening to Bad Seeds music at your age is like having a secret knowledge". He adds, "It was like I carried a secret around inside me, a special knowledge about the world that my friends didn’t have. It was a secret power. I carried this secret power with me all through my kid-years until I went to a school in Melbourne, where I met three or four other people who also had this special knowledge – this secret power".

The heartwarming response from the musician continues, "This secret knowledge you have is a strength that lives only inside certain people. It is a strength that will inspire you to do wondrous things – like write stories, or draw pictures, or build rockets that fly to Mars. It will give you the courage to take on anything that the world might put in front of you. It’s a wild power that can be of untold value to the world. Your name, Ptolemy, is a warrior’s name. A boy full of inspiration with a warrior’s name! The world is waiting for you. Blow ‘em away, kid."