Robert Smith
Robert Smith
Singer-songwriter and guitarist for the goth and new wave British band The Cure who sang "Friday I'm in Love," "Just Like Heaven," and "Lovecats."
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth21 April 1959
CityBlackpool, England
home makeup havens
Whenever I'm home, I haven't got any makeup on. But even in the studio, before I do vocals, I put makeup on.
thinking rocks rock-n-roll
I think the rock'n'roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap.
thinking people band
It's only people that aren't goths that think the Cure are a goth band.
past phones doors
I never answer if someone knocks on my door and only the band and my manager have my phone number. In any case my phone doesn't ring so I never notice it. I occasionally just walk past and pick it up to see if anyone's there.
beach memories children
My earliest memories are sitting on the beach at Blackpool, and I know that if I went back, it would be horrible. I know what Blackpool's like - it's nothing like I imagined it was as a child.
thinking play together
When you're in a young band for the first time, geographically you're in the same place and you tend to go out and socialize. You play more shows, you spend more time together. You're a unit. As you grow older, inevitably you develop a life outside the band. I think it would be tragic if you didn't.
demise pushing-it accepted
Everything I do has the tinge of the finite, of my own demise. At some point you either accept death or you just keep pushing it back as you get older and older. I've accepted it.
ideas machines becoming
My whole life I've played music for my own personal enjoyment and the idea of it becoming a machine or a business is just horrible.
want awful legacy
I don't want The Cure to fizzle out doing 45-minute shows of greatest hits. That would be awful for our legacy.
ideas pay fool
If I put a value on my music, and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan; it can't work.
hard-times giving looks
A lot of journalists give me a hard time about how I look, but I've never met a journalist I'd rather look like.
thinking actors different
I have never liked Morrissey, and I still don't. I think it's hilarious, actually, what things I've heard about him, what he's really like, and his public persona is so different. He's such an actor.
awful
Living, it's awful for me.
ideas joy division
I would be more familiar with Janet Jackson than I was with the Teardrop Explodes or Joy Division, because I didn't want to listen to my competitors for fear of nicking ideas off them.