He is not the first person you would expect to line up to pledge allegiance to the crown, but Australian musician Nick Cave has confirmed he will attend the coronation of King Charles III.
Writing in his online blog The Red Hand Files, Cave has explained his decision to attend had less to do with his political leanings and more to do with his love of pageantry.
"I am not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican for that matter," he wrote.
"What I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age."
"Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest."
Cave, who was born in rural Victoria in 1957 but has lived in the UK since the 80s, is part of the small delegation of prominent Australians invited to the coronation alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Further explaining his answer to a fan's question, "Why the f**k are you going to the King's coronation?", Cave shared the story of his first and only time meeting Queen Elizabeth II.
"It was a mostly awkward affair, but the Queen herself, dressed in a salmon coloured twin-set, seemed almost extraterrestrial and was the most charismatic woman I have ever met," he wrote.
"Maybe it was the lighting, but she actually glowed."
He then divulged that, to his great surprise, he wept while watching the Queen's funeral on TV.
"I guess what I am trying to say is that, beyond the interminable but necessary debates about the abolition of the monarchy, I hold an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals — the strangeness of them, the deeply eccentric nature of the whole affair that so perfectly reflects the unique weirdness of Britain itself," he wrote
"I'm just drawn to that kind of thing – the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, the awe-inspiring."
Cave, who is renowned for a decades-long career in which he has frequently dabbled in anti-establishment rhetoric, was asked by one incredulous fan asked what "young Nick" would think of him attending the coronation.
Cave answered: "Well, the young Nick Cave was, in all due respect to the young Nick Cave, young, and like many young people, mostly demented, so I'm a little cautious around using him as a benchmark for what I should or should not do. He was cute though, I'll give him that. Deranged, but cute.
"So, with all that in mind, I am looking forward to going to the Coronation. I think I'll wear a suit."
Other Australians invited to the coronation include comedian Adam Hills, opera singer Yvonne Kenny and soccer star Sam Kerr, who will carry the Australian flag during the ceremony.
King Charles III's coronation will take place on Saturday at 8pm AEST.
