Watch Robert Smith of The Cure cry during a recent US tour…
Robert Smith explains, “I have a Facebook page, but I have never posted anything on it. In actuality, I am active on every social media platform, but I have never once sent a message. If I weren’t, someone would have assumed my identity. These days, I have little interest in speaking with anyone other than the people I know, so the concept of doing an interview seems absurd to me. The world seems to be moving away from me, which is an odd situation for me, but you know what? I’m actually quite content with that. I am not at all bothered by it. I do not get the feeling that I am falling behind.”
There is something endlessly young about Robert Smith, like a pan-sticked Peter Pan. He is a great interview subject because he is open, knowledgeable, and even a little cheeky. But any such lightheartedness is counterbalanced by the implicit admission that life is pointless and that we are all but bodies with bones passing the time till decay and death take hold.
He muses over the drawbacks of our culture of constant news. “They repeatedly display the same pictures, giving the idea that it is happening everywhere, all the time. It is lost perspective. All of a sudden, surveys are urging people to “give the police live ammo.” And I think, “Wait a minute! Really, it is not that horrible.” “A dream come true for Theresa May,” he believes. It merely sets the stage for curfews and the arming of the police. It seems as though we are all rapidly approaching this police state, complete with roving gangs, a la 2000AD.”
