The Cure‘s Robert Smith has spoken out about his viral Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame interview revealing that he “felt bad” about it.
Back in 2019, while making their way through the red carpet ahead of being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at the New York Ceremony, Smith and co went on to do some press about receiving the accolade, their lengthy career, and the progress on new music.
For one of their first chats on the carpet, The Cure were met by an enthusiastic interviewer, who also admitted to being a huge fan. “Congratulations The Cure – Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees 2019! Are you as excited as I am?!” she asked.
Offering a typically-deadpan and blunt reply, Smith said: “By the sounds of it, no.” The clip of the interaction has since gone viral with fans of the ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ hitmakers calling it the moment “priceless”, “wonderfully British”, and “a hilarious joy”.
Now, while appearing as a guest on Annie MacManus and Nick Grimshaw’s podcast Sidetracked with Annie and Nick on BBC Sounds, the frontman opened up about the moment.
“I felt bad about that, actually…If I’m honest, I didn’t realise that I was being filmed. So, that’s probably why…we had just come from quite a serious conversation in our dressing room about what we were doing there. And this wave of enthusiasm was just like… [laughter].”
Elsewhere, the frontman recently credited his late brother for encouraging him to pursue The Cure full-time, instead of enrolling in further education.
Smith penned the track ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ about his brother’s death, and previously said that doing so had “helped [him] enormously”.
Speaking to Radio X‘s John Kennedy about the song, the musician and vocalist – who formed The Cure in 1976 – explained: “My brother gave me the idea that I could do whatever I wanted.
The Cure’s latest release was their 14th studio LP, ‘Songs Of A Lost World’– their first since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream‘. In a glowing five-star review of the album, NME shared: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest.”
It continued: “The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
In other news, Smith recently shared details of two more Cure albums – one of which is set to be a “companion piece” to ‘…Lost World’, while the third takes a different approach.
Smith then teased in his Radio X interview that he was “already finishing” the band’s next full-length record, and hinted at a summer 2025 release. “It’s not as dark in some ways,” he said, “although it actually has probably the saddest song of all of them on it.”
‘Songs Of A Lost World’ has landed at Number Six on NME‘s 50 best albums of 2024 list. Lead single ‘Alone’ also reached Number 19 on our 50 best songs of the year run-down.
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