In a new interview for NME‘s ‘Does Rock N’ Roll Kill Braincells?’ series, former The Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst recalled the band’s attempt to replace their frontman Robert Smith with a lookalike. During the interview, Tolhurst shared the time while the band was touring in 1982 with Zerra One’s Paul Bell when their plan of switching Smith with someone else failed. He shared:
“We were on tour with [Irish new wave band] Zerra One’s Paul Bell. He said: ‘If you bring the house lights down, I’ll put a wig on and we’ve got tracks of Robert Smith singing, and maybe it’ll work for a few shows.’ But a couple of days later, Robert returned, so it was OK.”
The drummer has been to several The Cure tribute shows of different artists. Did any of the frontmen look like Smith? Tolhurst shared:
“I’ve done fun little appearances with Cure tribute bands, but none of them looks like Robert at all. No matter what they wear, it’s not convincing. Then again, I’ve known him for 60 years, so I’m not going to mistake someone else for him. Hopefully!”
The two parties had a feud going on over the years. A year after leaving the band in 1989, the rocker sued Smith over royalty payments and even claimed joint ownership of the band’s name. The legal battle eventually ended up with the drummer losing. After 60 years of knowing each other, the friction between the two has been resolved.
Now, the two seem to have conflicts no longer, and Tolhurst is sure he wouldn’t mistake someone else for his bandmate.
