Sir Mick Jagger personally asked Robert Smith to sing on the new Rolling Stones album.
The 82-year-old rock and roll icon bumped into the Cure frontman at the recording studio in London during sessions for Foreign Tongues, which will be released on July 10, and the chance meeting lead to an unexpected crossover.
Speaking to Conan O’Brien on stage in Brooklyn at a special event after the album announcement, Jagger said: “I turned up one day to do my vocals in London, and there’s this bloke standing there with his back to me and this long gown on.
“When he turned around, it was covered in lipstick. I said, ‘I’ve never met you before, but you’re Robert Smith of the Cure.’
“He said, ‘Yeah!’ I said, ‘While you’re here, we better go and do something.’ He sings a backing vocal.”
The record will also feature a collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney, and Conan quipped it would have been “really funny” if the Stones had “made him audition”.
Like Robert Smith, The Beatles legend happened by chance – he was working at the studio next door while they recorded 2023’s Hackney Diamonds record.
Keith Richards, 82, added: “He wanted to come by and play with the band. He wanted to tick that box.”
The Rolling Stones’ late drummer Charlie Watts also appears, having worked on a number of new songs in the final years of his life, before he died in August 2021, aged 80.
Hit Me In The Head has been finished for Foreign Tongues.
Jagger teased: “We did that in LA with Charlie. It’s a real fast punk rocker. It’s a super fast song.”
For the rest of the album, Steve Jordan is behind the drum kit.
Richard said: “He was recommended by Charlie. Charlie passed on the baton to him.”
The new album was recorded at Metropolis Studios in West London, and is said to capture the band’s unmistakable sound while pushing into new sonic and lyrical territory.
Ronnie Wood, 78, teased in a statement: “The atmosphere in the room was so creative, and the whole band was on top form throughout the whole process. Very often we nailed it on the first take. I hope everyone loves it.”