The Cure frontman Robert Smith landed in a tough spot when he took up the singing position in the band. Speaking on the Absolute Radio show, Smith revealed he was confused at the affection people have for his singing and recalled how he messed up when he took the stage as frontman for the first time:
“For whatever reason, when I sing, people connect with it. I have no idea why and I don’t think any singer does. I was horrified when I ended up as the singer. You know, honestly, at school, I never did anything on stage.”
“I was always doing wardrobe stuff. And even when we did our first shows…I sang one song at our first show, just to see what it felt like, and I sang the wrong song.”
And it wasn’t just any song — it was one of Jimi Hendrix’s biggest classics. “I played and sang ‘Suffragette City,’ and everyone else was doing ‘Foxy Lady,'” he recalled. “And I was so drunk, I didn’t even know. I thought, ‘That was good.’ And everyone’s like, ‘You played the wrong song.'”
Smith continued, explaining why he became the vocalist:
“I never felt like I was cut out to be a singer, and I kind of grew into it because I fell out with everyone else that occupied that position until I became the de facto singer. That’s why, the early albums, the early mixes, I’m really low down in the mix.”
“But when I started singing, I didn’t think anyone would like what I sounded like. I didn’t, and so I thought no one else was going to. And so I though,t ‘This is going to be a really short career until we find someone who can sing.’ So I sang the first album and then discovered that people liked what I was doing.”
