Robert Smith of The Cure inspired YUNGBLUD to create Eyeliner | entertainment

YUNGBLUD credits Robert Smith of The Cure for wearing eyeliner.

The ‘I Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today’ rocker came full circle when 63-year-old Robert approved a sample of the band’s 1985 hit ‘Close to Me’ on YUNGBLUD’s new track ‘Tissues’ off his forthcoming self-titled LP .

And the 25-year-old star – real name Dom Harrison – has opened up about how The Cure, particularly eyeliner-wearing frontman Robert, inspired him to “speak up” without “filters.”

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, he said: “I put on eyeliner because of Robert Smith. They represented and embodied my joy and my sadness at the same time. As a 15-year-old boy in the north of England in the rain made me feel like I could express myself without a filter, without conforming. You taught me that conformity is death. When I was DJing The Cure, I was celebrating the idea that no one would want to talk to me.”

The couple met at the 2019 NME Awards after YUNGBLUD’s mother started chatting with the goth icon.

He recalled, “About two hours into the awards ceremony I had lost my mother and I turn around and she’s talking to Robert Smith and I’m like, ‘NO!’

So I walk over and I’m like, ‘Okay, Mom, hi Robert, I’m honored to meet you,’ and he said, ‘I love what you do…'”

YUNGBLUD ended up exchanging emails with the ‘Lovecats’ hitmaker and he was more than happy to let him use the song.

He added: “And then I got his email through a connection, and then I sent an email and said, ‘Hi Robert Smith from The Cure… ‘Close To Me’ – probably the most iconic British beat of all time. May I use it in the song?’ And I thought I don’t know what I’m going to do if he says no. But he came back in a few days. He’s typing all caps, Robert. He said ‘HELLO DOM YOU CAN USE ALL GOOD HERE LOVE ROBERT.’ I called my guys and I was like, ‘I sampled ‘Close To Me’, they let me use it.’ It was like a mosh pit – my guys up north were like, ‘YOOOOOO!’”

Listen to YUNGBLUD on Zane Lowe Apple Music 1 here: apple.co/_Zane.