On a radio show, Robert Smith spoke again about his late brother. Because he encouraged him to turn his creative work into a profession at The Cure. He was actually supposed to complete training beforehand.
“You do it or you don’t”
The 65-year-old was a guest on “Radio X” on December 17th and spoke about the songs from his recently released record “Songs Of A Lost World”. The song “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is dedicated to his late brother Richard Smith. He told radio host John Kennedy about his sibling: “Richard gave me the idea that I can do whatever I want.”
“My dad was also very supportive, but much more traditional. He wanted me to finish my education and then play in a band if I still wanted to do that,” Smith continued. However, that didn’t seem to be an alternative for the musician. He said: “I initially tried to make it clear to him that the world doesn’t work that way. You can’t come out the other end of university and then decide to play in a band. You do it or you don’t.”
His brother Richard stood up for him
Smith goes on to remember how his brother, who was 13 years older than him, then took his side.[…] I think he even persuaded my father because I think otherwise it would have been a problem because they let me stay at home until I got over it… But I never got it out of my head. In retrospect, I think my father may have thought that the sooner we failed, the sooner he could get me back into formal education.”
“He taught me everything”
Back in October 2024, Smith spoke in an interview with the Times about the death of his brother, who died in 2017 at the age of 70. Richard taught him to play the guitar and also the right taste in music: David Bowie and Captain Beefheart.
“He taught me everything,” Smith said. “When he died there was a tremendous outpouring of emotion, words, music and painting. And this is a simple recounting of what happened the night of his death. People say ‘cathartic’ too often, but that was it. It helped me tremendously.”
At a live show in Croatia in October 2022, Smith performed “I Can Never Say Goodbye” through tears.