Robert Smith of The Cure isn’t the type to bite his tongue over his dislike for many of his contemporaries. However, he rarely swings and misses with his hot takes. And Robert Smith once (well, not once) had some choice words about Morrissey.
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In one particular interview clip from back in the day, Smith was particularly direct about his dislike for The Smiths’ frontman.
“I actually dislike them [The Smiths] immensely,” Smith said in the interview below. “I just don’t like him [Morrissey] and I think he’s really arrogant, mainly. He’s like a professional intellectual, it’s like the worst type of person.”
Smith went on to say that he liked similar bands to The Cure that had a “melancholic feel”, namedropping the Cocteau Twins as one outfit that he enjoyed. But The Smiths? No can do.
The beef with Morrissey didn’t end there.
Why Couldn’t Robert Smith Stand Morrisey?
Robert Smith and Morrissey haven’t exactly liked each other for quite some time. The beef began in the 80s, though no one is entirely certain what set it off. Some believe that the hate started with Morrissey, though Smith was no angel when it came to retaliation.
Allegedly, the beef likely started when Morrissey was interviewed by The Face in 1984.
“Robert Smith is a whingebag,” he said. “It’s rather curious that he began wearing beads at the emergence of the Smiths and had been photographed with flowers.”
The comment got back to Smith, who clapped back with “Morrissey’s so depressing if he doesn’t [off] himself soon, I probably will.”
This just fuelled the fire, though Smith had every right to stick up for himself. In 1989, Morrisey said in an interview that Smith was “a precious, miserable b*st*rd.” He also went on to brutally criticize The Cure and their album Disintegration, which has since become a thing of legend. Morrisey called the famed album “crap”.
“At least we’ve only added a new dimension in crap, not built a career out of it,” Smith retorted.
From there, the beef seemed to diminish. Smith said in 2018 that he never really understood the feud. A year later, Morrissey said that he regretted saying “some terrible things about him [Robert Smith] 35 years ago.”
Smith allegedly accepted Morrissey’s apology and said the beef was “far from important now.” Even rock legends need to let things slide sometimes.
Photo by Ian Gavan
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