The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell Says ‘Extremely Unlikely’ Former Members Will Be Invited to Play at Rock Hall Induction
Longtime Cure keyboardist Roger O’Donnell reacted about as you might expect on Thursday morning (Dec. 13) to news that his band will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
In a call-in to the SiriusXM Volume “Feedback” morning show, O’Donnell spoke about the honor and the group’s plans for a new album, while offering a glimpse at what fans can expect when the goth-pop godheads take the stage on March 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, to hoist their hardware (alongside fellow inductees Def Leppard, Janet Jackson, Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, Roxy Music and The Zombies).
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“This is like the cherry on the top, isn’t it? This Rock Hall of Fame induction,” said O’Donnell. “It’s kind of weird, really. It hasn’t really sunk in.” The burning question, of course, was which line-up will appear at the ceremony in March, given the dozen or more players who’ve cycled through the group since 1976, which now counts singer/songwriter Robert Smith the sole remaining original member.
“We’ve very happy with the lineup as it is right now,” he said in response to a question about whether — as with some reunion shows in 2011 — some notable past players might join them on stage at the Barclays Center.
“I think we’re all decided that this is the best line-up that the Cure’s ever been,” he said. “So I think that that would be extremely unlikely, that we would involve any ex-members. Bands evolve, don’t they? Personnel changes… I’ve been in and out of the band three times now. I think if we perform we will perform as this line-up.”
In particular, O’Donnell had praise for guitarist and former Tin Machine member Reeves Gabrels, who has been in The Cure since 2012, lamenting that he will not be inducted along with Smith and whoever else makes the cut. The current line-up also includes veteran bassist Simon Gallup and drummer Jason Cooper.
“It’s very nice to be acknowledged by the fans primarily, and the industry and you guys, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he said, adding that the induction comes at a nice time in the band’s career, before adding the obligatory self-deprecating caveat. “If you could still call it a career. Career kind of implies that we’re trying to do something. We never really have. We’ve always played music… not kind of a career path. Whenever anyone said, ‘You’ve got to do this with your career,’ we would always do the exact opposite.”
O’Donnell, who joined the group in 1987 — more than a decade into their existence — before splitting in 1990, re-joining for a decade in 1995 and then re-upping a third time in 2011, said the timing of the honor feels right after four decades of the beloved mopepop legend’s existence. “I don’t think we’ll ever be at the table, will we?” he responded when asked if the honor felt like a long-coming seat at the table for the ultimate outsider group. “We’ll always be, like, stuck in the corner by the toilet. We’re certainly not a mainstream… I don’t think any of us thinks of The Cure as a rock band. Back in the day we were ‘alternative,’ and there’s loads of different labels that we’ve been stuck with. But as we’ll always be, we’re just The Cure. We’ve always played our own game.”
The keyboardist also revealed that the group is gearing up to enter the studio to work on their long-awatied follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream album, with lead singer Robert Smith busy toiling away at writing lyrics for the band’s 14th studio effort.
The 34th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, presented by Klipsch Audio, will take place on Friday, March 29, 2019, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Tickets will go on sale in January. The ceremony will have its broadcast premiere on HBO, with a radio broadcast on SiriusXM.
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