As most fans know, the Rolling Stones have a new album dropping on July 10. Foreign Tongues will be the group's follow-up to 2023's Hackney Diamonds. Based on the first releases from the record, the album is going to be a good one. It will also include Robert Smith of the Cure.
Smith plays on two tracks, the recently released "Divine Intervention" as well as "Never Wanna Lose You." On the former, he plays guitar, and on the latter, he provides backing vocals and synths. What he didn't want to do was disturb singer Mick Jagger when Jagger was recording some finishing vocals for the album.
On a recent episode of Speaking in Tongues, the official Rolling Stones podcast, Smith stated he had been contacted by Andrew Watt, who produced both of the last two albums by Jagger and his friends, and Watt asked Smith to come down to the studio during the final stages of recording.
Robert Smith discusses participating on the Rolling Stones' new album
The two were at a bar before heading to the studio when Watt mentioned Jagger was recording vocals. Smith, at first, decided he wanted to stay at the bar because he didn't want to interrupt any singer when they were doing vocals. Smith feels having guests in a studio when a singer is trying to do their thing can throw off the entire vibe.
Smith said, "(Watt) said that they’d pretty much done all the tracking and Mick was just left to pick up some vocal stuff. He told me the day before, ‘Mick might still be around,' and I was like, You know, That’s OK...The worst thing in the world is people bursting in, having a party when you’re trying to do something. So I said I’d wait in the bar until they’d be done."
What Smith wasn't prepared for, though, was to participate on the album. That didn't appear to happen until, once at the studio, Jagger asked if he wanted to do something. Smith said he "wasn't prepared."
"I was availing myself of the refreshments and my tongue was loosening, and my suggestions were getting more and more absurd, I suspect, as they often do," Smith continued. "And then out of nowhere [Jagger] said, ‘Do you fancy doing something on the album?’ And I was like, Whoa, hang on! And he said, ‘Oh, play a bit of guitar…’ And I was like, Well… I wasn’t really prepared for it. And so I, much to everyone’s astonishment, I said, No, no thanks, I can’t do that. I went up there expecting just to get drunk, really. And I wasn’t expecting to play on the Rolling Stones album."
Robert Smith does appear to be a bit of everywhere currently. His own band is reportedly close to delivering a follow-up to the excellent Songs of a Lost World from 2024. The Cure might even have enough material to drop their third album in relatively close succession.
Smith was also featured on Olivia Rodrigo's latest album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and performed live with the younger musician. In other words, it's a good time to be Robert Smith, thankfully.
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