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Credit: Kevin Mazur \/ Raph Pour-Hashemi<\/p>\n
Wed 1 July 2026 12:01, UK <\/p>\n
The Cure frontman Robert Smith<\/a> has revealed that he initially turned down the opportunity to appear on The Rolling Stones\u2019 new album.<\/p>\n Last week, The Stones continued to tease their forthcoming record, Foreign Tongues, which is set to arrive on July 10th, by sharing \u2018Divine Intervention\u2019 that features Smith on guitar. It arrived as a double-A side<\/a> alongside \u2018Jealous Lover\u2019.<\/p>\n Remarkably, before working together on \u2018Divine Intervention\u2019, Smith had never met The Rolling Stones before they teamed up for the track, and The Cure frontman did not expect for the legendary rock band to recruit his services.<\/p>\n In an upcoming episode of the new Rolling Stones podcast, Speaking in Tongues<\/a>, Smith explained how producer Andrew Watt \u201cgot in touch\u201d and was integral to the collaboration.<\/p>\n He recalled of his conversation with Watt (via NME<\/a>), \u201cWhen it got nearer to the end of the session, was I interested in coming up and finally grabbing that cold beer with him?,\u201d before adding, \u201cHe said that they\u2019d pretty much done all the tracking and Mick was just left to pick up some vocal stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n With the promise of a cold beer, Smith headed his way to Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, even though he did have his trepidations about being an unwelcomed visitor, admitting, \u201cI know what it\u2019s like being in the studio, particularly when you\u2019re singing. The last thing you want is guests.\u201d<\/p>\n While Smith \u201csaid I\u2019d wait in the bar until they\u2019d be done\u201d, he was then informed that Jagger was \u201chappy for [him] to come down\u201d to the studio, so he \u201cwalked into the control room and through the glass, there was Mick Jagger singing, which [I] was not was expecting at all\u201d.<\/p>\n From there, the pair conversed, and Smith was made to feel \u201cvery, very welcome\u201d while \u201cavailing myself of the refreshments and my tongue was loosening, and my suggestions were getting more and more absurd, I suspect, as they often do\u201d.<\/p>\n Much to his surprise, he recalled, \u201cOut of nowhere [Jagger] said, \u2018Do you fancy doing something on the album?\u2019 And I was like, Whoa, hang on! And he said, \u2018Oh, play a bit of guitar\u2026\u2019 And I was like, Well\u2026 I wasn\u2019t really prepared for it.\u201d<\/p>\n For many artists, working with The Stones is at the top of their bucket list, yet Smith responded, \u201cMuch to everyone\u2019s astonishment, I said, \u2018No, no thanks, I can\u2019t do that.\u2019 I went up there expecting just to get drunk, really. And I wasn\u2019t expecting to play on the Rolling Stones album.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, once Jagger had gone home, Smith, likely with more liquid confidence inside of him, changed his tune, sharing, \u201cI said to Andrew, \u2018Oh, come on then\u2019. Let\u2019s plug a guitar in and I\u2019ll have a go at some of the songs. So I just started playing and, yeah, one thing led to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n