Robert Smith: People asked me for selfies after “viral” red carpet video!

4 May 2019, 10:45 | Updated: 4 May 2019, 10:46

The Cure frontman has spoken about his recent appearance at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, claiming “I’m glad I didn’t say what I was going to say.”

Robert Smith has been talking about The Cure’s recent appearance at the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, which saw the frontman “go viral” following a hilarious exchange with an interviewer.

The footage from last month showed enthusiastic red carpet interviewer named Carrie Keagan saying: "Congratulations The Cure Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees 2019, are you as excited as I am?"

Robert Smith didn't quite share the reporter’s glee and replied: "Umm, by the sounds of it, no."

Speaking on the show Debatable on SiriusXM last night (3 May 2019), Smith noted that he found the whole thing absurd - but that the clip could have been a lot worse, joking: “I’m glad I didn’t say what I was going to say!”

Smith also couldn’t believe the reaction the clip had, adding: “I was in the studio in London and people I’d known for more than 25 years were asking me for selfies! I thought, what’s going on? Cab drivers were asking me for autographs - I haven’t signed an autograph for a cab driver in more than 30 years! The whole thing was totally absurd. It was like I’d entered some kind of Twilight Zone for about 48 hours. It was utterly bizarre."

The clip was quickly picked up and tweeted around the world:

“I don’t understand what going viral means, cos I’m a Luddite. It made me laugh, because this is the moment where we’re inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and of all the things we’ve done, all the things we’re celebrating, that was the only thing that was mentioned by people who I hadn’t spoken to for like decades.

“Someone showed it to me at the airport, saying there’s hundreds and thousands of people looking. I can see there’s a very slight pause, very momentarily in order to think of something that wasn’t offensive in the slightest and very neutral… and that what came out. I fell back on my natural… dryness, I suppose.”

Smith also confirmed that The Cure’s Hyde Park show from July 2018 would get a cinema release this summer. “It looks absolutely amazing and sounds great.”

Director Tim Pope, who has previously helmed the classic videos for Close To Me and The Love Cats, tweeted some screenshots from the film, saying: "Our film of Hyde Park will hit cinemas in early summer. I shot it in groovy 4K and we mixed at Abbey Road in glorious 5:1 surround sound."

There will also be a companion piece, a film of the band’s set at London’s Meltdown Festival, which Smith curated last year.

As for the long-awaited new Cure album - their first in over a decade - Robert noted that the record would be released “before Christmas or I don’t know what I’ll do! I still need to sing some of the songs.”

The Cure will play their classic 1989 album Disintegration at Sydney’s Vivid Festival later this month, but Smith doubts whether the LP will be performed in full again during its 30th anniversary year, saying: “I don’t really want to dedicate the rest of the year to something that happened 30 years ago. I would hate it if come Christmas that’s all I’m still talking about. I want to incorporate it into some of the things we’re doing across the rest of the year.”

The final Sydney show will be lived streamed on 30 May, and The Cure will headline Glastonbury festival on Sunday 30 June.