Robert James Smith (born 21 April 1959) is an English musician who is the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the Cure, a post-punk band formed in 1976. His guitar-playing style (including his use of the Fender Bass VI), and distinctive singing voice shaped the sounding identity of the Cure. His fashion sense (often sporting a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, unkempt wiry black hair and all-black clothes) were highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.

Smith's other work includes playing the lead guitar as a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1982 to 1984 and being the co-founder of the short-lived band the Glove in 1983. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked him as the 157th greatest singer of all time in 2023.

Early life Robert James Smith was born in Blackpool on 21 April 1959, the third of four children of Rita Mary (née Emmott) and James Alexander Smith.Barbarian, L., Steve Sutherland and Robert Smith. Ten Imaginary Years (1988) Zomba Books, p. 121; Apter, Jeff, Never Enough: The Story of The Cure, (2009) Omnibus Press, pp. 3–4; He came from a musical family, as his father sang and his mother played the piano.Apter, Jeff, Never Enough: The Story of The Cure, (2009) Omnibus Press, p. 15; Raised as a Catholic,Sandall, Robert, "Disintegration" (Robert Smith Interview), Q, May 1989 he later became an atheist. When he was three years old, his family moved to Horley, where he attended St Francis' Primary School. When he was six, his family moved to Crawley, where he attended St. Francis' Junior School. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School from 1970 to 1972, and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School from 1972 to 1977. He and his younger sister Janet received piano lessons as children.Simmons, Sylvie, "Everything Falls Apart", Revolution, September 1989. He later quipped, "[Janet] was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck."Gore, Joe, "Confessions of a Pop Mastermind", Guitar Player, September 1992. He told Smash Hits that in 1966, when he turned seven years old, his older brother Richard taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar.Heath, Chris. "Robert Smith This Is Your Life", Smash Hits, May 1986

Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine with a student of guitarist John Williams, whom he called a "really excellent guitarist". He said, "I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun. I wish I'd stuck with it." He has said his guitar tutor was "horrified" by his playing.Thompson, Dave, and Jo-Ann Greene. The Cure – A Visual Documentary, (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 5; He gave up formal tuition and began teaching himself to play by ear, listening to his older brother's record collection. He was 13 or 14 when he became more serious about rock music and "started to play and learn frenetically".Tellier, Emmanuel, "Les Attrapes-Coeurs de Robert Smith, The Cure", Les Inrockuptibles, pp. 22–28, October 1997 Up until December 1972, he did not have a guitar of his own and had been borrowing his brother's, so his brother gave him the guitar for Christmas. Smith said of this gift, "I'd commandeered it anywayso whether he was officially giving it to me at Christmas or not, I was going to have it!"Hermanson, Wendy, Robert Smith Remembers a Christmas Gift, Launch.com/Yahoo! Music, 6 December 1999. Rock biographer Jeff Apter maintains that the guitar Smith received for Christmas of 1972 was from his parents, and equates this item with Smith's Woolworths "Top 20" guitar that was later used on many of the Cure's earliest recordings.Apter, Jeff. Never Enough: The Story of The Cure, (2009) Omnibus Press, p. 25; Smith has given differing accounts of the instrument’s origin, at times stating in interviews that he purchased the guitar himself for £20 in 1978.Thompson, Dave, and Jo-Ann Greene. The Cure – A Visual Documentary (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 8; Doran, Rachel. "The Cure – A History", Spiral Scratch, 16 April 1992Staff. "The Gothfather", Guitar World, June 1996

Smith described Notre Dame Middle School as "a very free-thinking establishment" with an experimental approach, a freedom he claims to have abused. On one occasion, he said that he wore a black velvet dress to school and kept it on all day: "The teachers just thought, 'Oh, it's a phase he's going through, he's got some personality crisis, let's help him through it.'" He said "four other kids" beat him up after school, although Apter notes that Smith has given several conflicting versions of the story. Apter also reports that Smith put in just enough effort at Notre Dame to pass tests, and quotes Smith as saying, "If you were crafty enough, you could convince the teachers you were special; I did virtually nothing for three years."Apter, Jeff, Never Enough: The Story of The Cure, (2009) Omnibus Press, p. 21; St Wilfrid's was reportedly stricter than Notre Dame.Apter, Jeff, Never Enough: The Story of The Cure, (2009) Omnibus Press, pp. 23–24; In the summer of 1975, Smith and his school bandmates took their O Levels, but only he and Michael Dempsey stayed on to attend sixth form at St Wilfrid's from 1976 to 1977.Bowler, Dave, and Bryan Dray, The Cure – Faith, (1995), Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 12;

Smith has said that he was expelled from St Wilfrid's as an "undesirable influence" after his band Malice's second live performance shortly before Christmas in 1976, which took place at the school and allegedly caused a riot: "I got taken back [in 1977] but they never acknowledged that I was there [...] I did three A levelsfailed biology miserably, scraped through French, and got a 'B' in English. Then I spent eight or nine months on social security until they stopped my money, so I thought, 'Now's the time to make a demo and see what people think.'" According to Cure biographers Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, the school expelled ex-Malice co-founder Marc Ceccagno along with Smith, whose new band Amulet played the December school show.Bowler, Dave & Bryan Dray, The Cure – Faith, (1995), Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 11; Smith has given conflicting accounts of his alleged expulsion, elsewhere saying that he was merely suspended and that it was because he did not get along with the school headmaster,Black, Johnny, "Curious Case of the Cure", London Times, 26 April 1989. and on another occasion saying he was suspended because his "attitude towards religion was considered wrong".Wilde, John, "Lipstick Traces", Melody Maker, 29 April 1989.

Music career School bands: 1972–1976 Smith has said that his first band when he was 14 consisted of himself, his brother Richard, their younger sister Janet, and some of Richard's friends. He remarked, "It was called the Crawley Goat Band – brilliant!" However, while the Crawley Goat Band may have been Smith's first regular group, he would have been just 13 when he and his Notre Dame schoolmates gave their first one-off performance together as the Obelisk, an early incarnation of what would eventually become the Cure. The Obelisk featured Smith (still playing piano at this point) alongside Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar), Michael Dempsey (guitar), Alan Hill (bass), and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion) and, according to the Cure's official biography Ten Imaginary Years, gave their only performance at a school function in April 1972. Jeff Apter, however, dates the performance to April 1973,Apter, Jeff. Never Enough: The Story of the Cure, (2009), Omnibus Press, p. 26; which is at variance with Smith and his bandmates having already left Notre Dame Middle School by this time.

During the latter part of 1972, the nucleus of Smith, Ceccagno, Dempsey and Tolhurst had gone on to secondary school together at St Wilfrid's Comprehensive, where they and their friends continued playing music together. Smith said that they were known simply as "The Group" "because it was the only one at school so we didn't need a name." Dempsey, who eventually moved from guitar to bassist for the Group, said that another name they toyed with was the Brat's Club – a reference to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. Smith said that "the group" eventually became Malice, "sort of a sub-metal punk group -with Michael Dempsey, Laurence and two other blokes." According to the band's Ten Imaginary Years biography, between January and December 1976, the shifting line-up for Malice featured several "other blokes", with founding guitarist Marc Ceccagno being replaced by Pearl Thompson, an early drummer known only as "Graham" replaced by Lol Tolhurst, and "Graham's brother" replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy. By 1977, Malice had become Easy Cure.

The Cure: 1976–present

As singer and frontman Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist of the Cure. Bowler and Dray note that the Obelisk had "featured Dempsey and Ceccagno as guitarists and him [Robert] on piano as very much a background player."Bowler, Dave, and Bryan Dray, The Cure – Faith, (1995), Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 10; As the Group gradually became Malice and began regular rehearsals in January 1976, Smith was still one of several floating members.Membership "used to fluctuate between five and fifteen" people according to Smith. Of their first "proper" rehearsal at St Edwards Church, Smith said:

By December 1976, Graham's brother had been replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy, a journalist with The Crawley Observer, whose brief tenure with the group was a live débâcle according to those involved.Barbarian, L., Steve Sutherland & Robert Smith, Ten Imaginary Years, (1988), Zomba Books; By January 1977 Malice had changed their name to Easy Cure,Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene. The Cure – A Visual Documentary, (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 6; partly to distance themselves from these earlier shows. Both drummer Lol Tolhurst and bassist Mick Dempsey are also noted as having performed vocals with the group in the early years. Tolhurst also sang on a cover of "Wild Thing" at Malice's early shows,Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene. The Cure – A Visual Documentary (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 6; ) and Dempsey sang backing vocals on songs like "Killing An Arab", and even recorded lead vocals on one track on the Cure's debut album, their cover of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady".Cure News 5, May 1988.Cure News 11, October 1991 During March 1977, a vocalist named Gary X came and went, and was replaced by Peter O'Toole, described as "a demon footballer and Bowie fan" who made his singing debut in April. O'Toole remained Easy Cure's steady front man for several months while the group played the local pub circuit, "building up an enormous local following", and was even the singer on the home demo tapes that landed them their first recording contract with Hansa Records.

However, by the time Easy Cure entered London's Sound And Vision Studio to record for Hansa in October 1977, O'Toole had left to work on a Kibbutz in Israel. Smith then fell into the vocalist role by default, since no better replacement appeared. He told Musician magazine in 1989:

On 14 October 2024, Smith announced that he plans on retiring in 2029. "I’m 70 in 2029, and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album [Three Imaginary Boys]. If I make it that far, that’s it. In the intervening time, I’d like to include playing concerts as part of the overall plan of what we’re going to do. I’ve loved it; the last 10 years of playing shows have been the best 10 years of being in the band. It pisses all over the other 30-odd years! It’s been great" Smith said.

As principal songwriter