Robert Smith Reveals the Surprising Reason David Bowie Inspired The Cure's Hours-Long Shows

The rocker also explains why he's pushing back against Ticketmaster price-gouging: "It's a self-fulfilling good vibe"

Robert Smith is far from the first musician to take a stand against Ticketmaster, but his desire to advocate for concertgoers goes back to 1978.

In a rare interview with The Times, The Cure frontman recalled a disappointing experience watching future friend David Bowie perform at Earls Court in London in 1978 when Smith was only 19 years old. The concert lasted only 42 minutes, leaving the goth pioneer furious. At the time of the show, The Cure had just released their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, only a month prior.

"I’d hate not to be able to justify myself to that 19 year old," Smith said, vowing to give fans a much longer show if he ever received the same platform Bowie had. The goth pioneer kept to his promise, and The Cure became notorious for their hours-long shows, the longest being a 50-song, four-hour-long concert in Mexico City for Smith's 54th birthday on April 21, 2013.

Related: Robert Smith of The Cure's Hilariously Deadpan Red Carpet Interview Is a Social Media Hit

Smith, 65, also believes concert tickets should be more accessible to consumers. For The Cure's 2023 Shows of a Lost World tour, Smith announced the band would not be partaking in Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing, which alters the price based on demand. To combat scalpers, tickets could not be resold for more than face value. Over 7,000 tickets were canceled due to scalping suspicions, and fans subjected to additional service fees were given partial refunds from Ticketmaster as urged by Smith.

“I was shocked by how much profit is made,” Smith said about the concert ticket industry. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower."

Smith further goes on to explain his logic for lower ticket prices, which he thinks will lead to happier concertgoers who will spend more money and come back. “If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time," he explained. "It is a self-fulfilling good vibe and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it."

Related: Ticketmaster and Live Nation Vow to Show Ticket Fees Up Front in Meeting with President Biden

The "Boys Don't Cry" singer also had words for artists who partake in dynamic pricing and high service fees: "It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f---ing stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed."

In 2023, President Joe Biden called out "junk fees" that hike up ticket prices. Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, vowed to be more transparent in its pricing by showing the full price with fees included when browsing the site.

In May 2024, The Justice Department sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for its "monopolistic control" of the concert industry. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. 

The Cure is set to release their first album in 16 years, Songs of a Lost World, on Nov. 1.

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