“I felt bad about that actually.” The Cure’s Robert Smith on hilarious viral interview clip from Rock Hall induction

The Cure frontman Robert Smith says he feels bad about a viral video clip in which he brings an excitable presenter down a peg or two with a cuttingly deadpan response to her opening question.

Surely all of us have by now seen the clip of Smith’s typically British reaction to the interviewer, which went viral on various social media platforms in the days after it happened and again through the Covid-19 lockdowns.

But was Smith even aware of the reaction to the clip? Yes, he certainly was. And he tells the BBC that he felt bad about the whole thing.

Picture the scene. As The Cure make their way along the red carpet in the minutes before being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, American presenter Carrie Keagan stops the band for a chat.

Keagan’s high-octane interview style appears to catch Smith off guard.

She says: “Congratulations The Cure! Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees 2019. Are you as excited as I am?”

Without so much as cracking a hint of a smile, Smith replies: “By the sound of it, no.”

Looking back on that moment from more than five years ago, Smith tells the BBC’s Sidetracked: “I felt bad about that, actually.

“If I’m honest, I didn’t realise that I was being filmed. So, that’s probably why. We had just come from quite a serious conversation in our dressing room about what we were doing there.

“And this wave of enthusiasm was just like…”

A short clip of the hilarious interaction can be viewed below, along with the full interview in which, to be fair, Smith does appear to warm up to Keagan’s questions.

The Cure released their long-awaited 14th studio album Songs of a Lost World in November.