by Jim McGuinn, Program Director and Host, Y-Rock on XPN

Interviewing Robert Smith in 1985, playing soccer against him in 1996, and reliving it all while record shopping in 2004. Every 10 years or so, my path seems to cross with The Cure’s Robert Smith… When I was in college I wrote for the school paper, and somehow got to interview Robert Smith when The Cure came to town. The show was terrific – a celebration of their entire career up to that point, from the sparse pop of Boys Don’t Cry thru the musical abyss of Faithful and Pornography to the fully realized pop of The Head on the Door. But to me, a nervous 19-year old kid from the ‘burbs, I expected Robert Smith to bite my head off in some gothic ritual upon going backstage. Truth is, he offered me a beer and place to sit and was one of the nicest, funniest men I’ve ever met in rock. A little more than 10 years later, WDRE set up a soccer game pitting our staff and listeners against The Cure and their crew: Robert Smith deked around me with the ball to score a goal. Embarrassing and funny. Cut to 2004 and in a radio promotion we set up a winner to go record shopping at AKA Music with Robert. He rolls off the tour bus, barely awake at 4pm, and turns out once again to be completely charming, fascinating, and polite. And to be voracious about music – picking up indie bands and obscurities. I showed him the article I wrote for the college paper and he laughed heartily at his own quotes from 20 years prior. Good times.

The Cure, “In Between Days,” (but with plenty of socks), 1984