The Cure’s Robert Smith shares the unlikely artist who inspired him to start a band

The Cure frontman Robert Smith says an unlikely influence informed his decision to start a band.

Smith, who has fronted The Cure for decades, says that one musician who came across as “completely free” left him enamoured with music and prompted him to form a band. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and songwriter Roger Waters also cited the veteran rock star as a huge influence on their work. Smith says he was just eleven when he was in the audience for Jimi Hendrix‘s performance, one of the guitar legend’s final performances before his death on September 18, 1970. The show left a lasting impression on Smith, who chose to pursue music soon after the gig.

He said: “Hendrix was the first person I had come across who seemed completely free. When you’re nine or 10, your life is entirely dominated by adults. So he represented this thing that I wanted to be. Hendrix was the first person who made me think it might be good to be a singer and a guitarist — before that I wanted to be a footballer.”

Fellow music legends were full of praise for Hendrix, whose influence spread through rock and roll long after his death. Speaking to MOJO Magazine, Gilmour said: “I saw him playing live at this club called Blaises in South Kensington. He jammed with the Brian Auger Trinity with Julie Driscoll singing. This little place was packed with Beatles and Stones-type people, so you think, ‘Something’s going on.’

“And this kid came in and strapped a right-handed guitar on the wrong way round. He was an absolute phenomenon from the beginning.” Following that gig, Gilmour found himself in Paris and would bump into Hendrix, where the Pink Floyd member was tasked with showing the Fire sensation around.

Gilmour added: “Later, I was living in Paris and one of the jobs outside of just playing with my little pop group [Jokers Wild] there was that I was employed to take him round Paris for an evening, show him a good time. And he seemed very nice. Likeable, shy.”

The Rolling Stones’ frontman, Mick Jagger, also says Hendrix had quite an influence on him but suggested it was his instrumental skill that everyone remembers.

Jagger said: “I loved Jimi Hendrix from the beginning. The moment I saw him, I thought he was fantastic. I was an instant convert. Mr. Jimi Hendrix is the best thing I’ve ever seen. It was exciting, sexy, interesting.

“He didn’t have a very good voice, but made up for it with his guitar. I first saw him at the Revolution Club, in London. I was one of six people in the club, and Jimi was playing. I couldn’t believe it.

“It was insane – so good and the whole idea of this kind of English band behind him, this bizarre mixture between a blues performer and a rock player with an English touch.”