In a few weeks, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds will release their new album Wild God. That’s a big deal. But these days, Nick Cave is less known as a slightly vampiric and decadent rock frontman, more known as a charming and erudite international treasure. That’s not to diminish his status as a musician, which is unimpeachable. This new position is more an accident of fate and a testament to how he’s publicly processed his grief with grace and empathy. This is just a way of explaining how Cave’s promotional efforts for the new album are less built around performing music, more around talking on TV.

On last night’s episode of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, Nick Cave did not perform with the Bad Seeds. Instead, he was there for an interview, and he did great. Cave is ridiculously handsome and dapper, while also looking like the 66-year-old man that he is, and he’s got that great voice. He answered all of Colbert’s lines of inquiry with great gravitas, but he was also funny. When Colbert talked about how the ambient hostility of Cave’s early stage presence could’ve been a mask for anxiety, Cave said, “Yeah, maybe. I was just a nasty little guy.”

In the interview, Cave also told a great story about when he sang backup on Johnny Cash’s version of his song “The Mercy Seat,” and he also discussed how the “joyous, uplifting” vibe of his new album contrasts with so much of the stuff that he’s recorded over the years. The part where they get into processing grief — something that both Cave and Colbert grappled with in their public lives — it gets heavy and moving. The online version of the interview lasts for more than 20 minutes, and it’s well worth watching. You can do that below.

That was actually the second in-depth Nick Cave interview that’s aired on television this week. On Monday night, Cave was the subject of a long-form profile on Australian Story, a newsmagazine show in his homeland. Cave actually did the interview on the second anniversary of the passing of his son Jethro — something that interviewer Leigh Sales didn’t realize when she scheduled the interview. Cave talks about how the losses of his two sons caused him to reconsider what he calls the “disgraceful self-indulgence” of his own self-image. He also described his Red Hand Files newsletter as “this bizarre opportunity for people to indulge to some degree in their grief.” Watch that story below.

Wild God is out 8/30 on Bad Seed Ltd./Play It Again Sam. Tonight at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, Nick Cave will do a live interview and host a playback of the album.