"He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him." Billy Corgan on how he became a fan of The Cure...and the first time he met Robert Smith

The Cure in 1984.

Billy Corgan has long been a paid-up devotee of The Cure. The Smashing Pumpkins frontman enlisted Robert Smith for a collaboration on his debut solo record TheFutureEmbrace, the pair duetting on a gothy reworking of The Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody. The Pumpkins have also been known to cover their favourite Cure tunes now and then, with guitarist James Iha taking vocal duties on both their stripped-down cover of A Night Like This and a live version of Friday I’m In Love in 2018.

Speaking to this writer a few years ago, Corgan remembered the moment he became a fan. “I was dating a goth girl who was obsessed with The Cure,” he recalled. “She spoke about Robert Smith like he was her friend, which I’ve found through the years is very common with Cure fans; they see Robert as almost like their buddy.”