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Today i want to discuss a band that i’ve talked a lot about and that’s the Cult.
While the british band would dominate the 80’s with hit album after hit album including
1985’s Love, 1987’s Electric and 1989’s Sonic Temple, the 90’s and early 2000’s
were a pretty rough time for the band.
Lawsuits, death, declining record sales, and concert tickets as well as breakups, as well
as short-lived reunions and more breakups again were in store for the band.
Stay tuned for the full story.
in 1991 the cult released their fifth studio album ceremony and by this point in the British
band's career they established themselves as the one of the biggest chameleons in rock
and roll being able to showcase different musical styles without losing their fan base.
The band would be led by songwriting duo frontman Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy.
Their 1991 album Ceremony was heavily influenced by Native American culture which Ian Astbury
is a part of.
Now the relationship between Astbury and Duffy was strained by this point in the band’s
career and for the first time in the group’s history, the songwriting pair couldn't agree
on musical direction Duffy wanted to keep playing heavy rock while Astbury wanted to
change the band's sound.
Due to the musical disagreement, Ceremony is the product of compromise.
The album showed some similarities with Sonic temple including the tracks like wild hearted
Sun, as well as earth mofo while Astbury’s more experimental side were shown on songs
like Indian.
And there were a couple of things working against the success of the record.
For starters it was released in September of 1991, which was possibly the worst time
to release the album as alternative rock was on it's way to dominating the rock charts
with several records coming out around this time including Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s
Nevermind, Red hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Then there were band’s of the
80’s who were bigger than ever including Metallica and Guns N’ Roses who released
their own juggernaut albums around this time including the Black album and the use your
illusion records.
The Cult coincidentally enough would tour with both bands in the late 80’s.
Ceremony only peaked at number 25 on the album charts in the US and became the first record
from since 1985’s Love that failed to achieve Gold status in America.
It wasn’t just alternative rock hitting the Cult’s album sales and pocketbook. as
the band was also involved in litigation In the summer of 1992 a lawsuit that was filed
against the The Cult by the parents of the 11 year old child who's featured on the album's
front cover as well as the video for the song wild hearted son.
The child’s parents sued the Cult for 61 million dollars claiming that the The Cult
hadn't got permission to use the boy's image.
here's an MTV report at the time discussing the lawsuit as well as the Cult's response.
But first the Cult at the center of a lawsuit of the alleged improper use of a photograph
of a child used on the cover of the ceremony album and also as a dramatic centerpiece of
their video wild hearted son in which a snapshot is burnt eleven-year-old Sioux Indian eternity
Debray and his parents have filed the 61 million dollar lawsuit in the American Supreme Court
individually against frontman Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy as well as a multimedia company
Time Warner, Warner Brothers Records, sire records and Jon Running the photographer credited
for the picture.
Eternity first saw the image when he was flicking through the channels on American television
and saw the picture on MTV whereupon he reportedly ran screaming to his father the picture was
taken when eternity was four at a tribal gathering running took the polaroid shot and gave it
to eternities parents who assumed it was a private photo for them.
The court papers allege that running somehow got hold of a copy of the snap and sold it
to the record company.
The Sioux holders and souls regard the incident as yet another example of discrimination and
exploitation of their culture.
An opinion which would hardly make them warm to Ian Astbury's comments in an interview
with music paper the NME quotes the motif of the indian child on the album cover fits
in with the imagery of man rediscovering his relationship with the earth as yet there's
no comment from the cult on the matter, but Ian Astbury is in the process of preparing
a statement so they'll keep you posted on the band.
British rock band the cult has responded to being sued last week by an eleven-year-old
siou Indian boy and his family for 61 million dollars the family claimed unauthorized use
of the boy's photo on the band's latest album ceremony and in a music video from the album.
The Cult frontman Ian Astbury who is part Native American himself dismisses the suit
and says the band had authorization to use the photograph.
The release forms are signed in everything by the family it was done like about eight
years ago the photograph was commercially available in the book besides retained the
rights for the past eight years there's a commercially available poster of the image
even before we've we've been interested in using the image so I think it's just somebody
sniffing around to try and exploit the current trend of Native Americans suing either corporations
or sports teams and in this case you know a musical group so which we've been caught
in a web.
I've been involved in supporting Native issues since it was 11 years old.
Ian Astbury of the cult According to a 1992 Entertainment Weekly article Native American
beliefs associate the burning of objects with death.
The child on the front cover of the album ended up seeing the clip of the song Wild
Hearted Son on mtv while he was staying in a motel with his parents in north carolina.
His parents would claim he was emotionally scarred and refused to participate in tribal
ceremonies or to leave the house by himself.
Several sources I’ve come across claim the lawsuit was not successful, but remember guys,
just because a lawsuit seems bogus, you still have to spend money and time defending yourself.
And as a result of the lawsuit it would delay the release of Ceremony in several countries
outside of Europe as well as North America including Thailand and Singapore, which didn’t
see the record come out until 1992.
Also hitting the band hard during the tour to support Ceremony, was that founding member
and drummer Nigel Preston who left the band in 1985 after a business dispute, would die
of a drug overdose in 1992.
The band would soldier on releasing their self titled album in 1994.
Much like Ceremony, their 1994 self-titled record was a test of wills . According to
the morning call who interviewed frontman Ian astbury he clamed he liked The band's
self-titled disc, but Billy Duffy didn't.
The album was more influenced by the alternative rock scene that was popular at the time.
Astbury claimed the album was very personal for him as he wrote about childhood trauma,
and the death of former bandmate and friend Nigel Preston.
The album barely made a dent on the charts, not even peaking in the top 40.
Within a year of the album’s release the band fell apart while on tour.
The final straw came in South America.
According to guitarist billy duffy who told loudersound “ We broke up in 1995”, “That
was a real break-up.
We were in South America, and Ian just split.
I think the problem was that neither of us were ever very comfortable with success.
We’re just not cut out for being pop stars.
It’s not something that either of us ever wanted.
It’s like Ian Astbury once told Lars Ulrich, ‘Don’t confuse bigness with greatness.’”
The band would scrap the rest of their south american tour dates and a planned tour with
the band Sponge.
Astbury would tell newsday “I left the band because I was exhausted after 12 years with
co-founderBilly Duffy,I'd given everything I could in our relationship
and made a lot of sacrifices in my life.
Time with your family and time for yourself to be away from thepressures of being objectified
as a singer in a rock and roll band" he'd remember.
What was it, about getting too big did Astbury feel uncomfortable with?
He would tell digital journal during an interview At twenty-seven, twenty-eight, I was told,
‘All of this can be yours.’
We were on to the next level -we were playing arenas -and it was like, ‘The stadiums can
be yours if you sign... here.’
I was like, “Ain’t gonna happen.”
Then I went about destroying it all.
I took a scorched-earth policy.”
For Astbury he felt that the music scene had become too image-obsessed as he would recall
“MTV was God,” In addition to that, Ian was really disillusioned
with rock n’ roll at the time and he thought the genre had lost it's way.
He would tell the Cleveland scene his thoughts on rock n’ roll frontmen of the 90’s claiming
They were sexually impotent," Astbury says.
"Their music didn't celebrate sexuality.
Look at how they dressed.
They didn't dress like peacocks.“
During the tail end of the Cult in the mid 90's Astbury also revealed on an article published
on fansite thecultmusic.com that his personal life was in shambles as he was struggling
with substance abuse, his marriage falling apart.
Both Ian and Billy would pursue other musical projects with Astbury putting out a solo album
that was heavily techno inspired and created a new band called The Holy Barbarians.
Duffy meanwhile played in a band called Coloursound.
During their time apart the song writing duo barely saw each other as Duffy would tell
an interviewer “Me and Ian barely saw each other in that
period”,.
“From 1995 to 1999, I literally saw him probably once or twice a year, casually, somewhere.
That was the reality of what it was like.
We were on two different paths.”
The Cult wouldn’t reform until the late 90’s when the band’s former drummer in
the late 80's Matt Sorum who also played with Guns N’ Roses reconvened the band.
Sorum would recall in his recently released book Double Talkin Jive how he got the Cult
back together revealing how one night he was watching TV and seeing Buckcherry and calling
up his ex-bandmate guitarist Billy Duffy and sayed
“Billy!”
I said.
“I just saw a band on TV, and they’re like a watered down poor man’s version of
the Cult.
I think rock ’n’ roll could be coming Back.”
We talked through a lot of shit after that: what had been going on since
I left GNR, what he was up to (which wasn’t much).
Eventually, I said, “Let’s get the band back together; let’s
book a tour and go to the press and say, ‘The Cult is back!’”
Duffy agreed and soon reconnected with Astbury.
Duffy flew to LA and bunked with Sorum for a bit and The Cult soon organized a sold out
theatre tour and it was around this time record labels started sniffing around including Atlantic
and Warner Brothers.
Up to this point in the Cult's careert had never been offered a million dollar record
deal in their career.
The most the band had previously gotten was around 100K, but now record labels were offering
deals in the high six figures and low 7 figures range.
The band would eventually sign a million dollar deal with Atlantic Records.
And During Sorum’s previous sting with the band he was a hired gun and never played on
any of the band’s records.
This time though he was a full fledged member and was making good money.
The working title of the Cult’s new album in 2000 was Bring Me the Head of Dave Grohl
which was in reference to a recent interview that the Foo Fighters frontman had given disparaging
the band.
As the band began work on their new record ensions were brewing in the studio.
Bassist Martyn Lenoble tried to contribute song ideas but quickly met resistance.
Sorum would recall in his book Billy had come up with a bunch of riffs, and
we began rehearsing.
But then one day, when our bassist Martyn Lenoble
said something like, “What do you think about trying this?”
Billy just stared at him and without batting an eyelid, he said, “Ian and I write the
songs for the Cult.
You just play your bass, and I’ll give you the ideas.”
Each time we wrote songs, it was the same story.
No one but Ian or Billy was allowed a say, and I remember Martyn coming over to me one
day and whispering, “Why are we even here?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug.
Eventually Martyn would leave the band and would be replaced by Chris Wyse.
Helping produce the record was old friend Bob Rock who worked with the Cult on their
1989 record Sonic temple which was a smash success.
The sessions for the record would drag on and eventually the band would temporarily
relocate to Hawaii where Bob Rock lived.
He owned a studio perched on a hill overlooking the ocean.
The band would end up spending $750K making the record meaning there wasn’t even 100,000
for each of the members.
Released in 2001 the record was called Beyond Good and Evil would mark the first Cult album
in over 6 years.
The album was a commercial disappointment only peaking at number 26 on the album charts
in the US and selling around 500K copies.
Regardless the band hit the road and according to Sorum Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy soon
got bored being on tour.
According to Sorum it was that attitude that didn’t help record sales, but the band did
have strong attendance for their concerts.
Eventually the Cult got to support Aerosmith on tour in 2001, but Astbury quickly sabotaged
the opportunity once again
The first show the band opened for Aerosmith was in Canada and prior to hitting the stage
Aerosmith’s manager Jimmy Ayers warned the band not to run up the huge ramps that went
from the stage out into the audience with an enormous hand at the end of it.
According to Sorum one song into the band’s set Ian Astbury ran all the way down the ramp
up to the hand and immediately started jumping up and down on it
As the Cult finished their show they headed back to the dressing room when Aerosmith’s
manager came in and fired the band off the tour.
Sorum would tell his bandmates and Aerosmith’s manager to hold on a second before running
over to Steven Tyler's dressing room.
r.
He would reveal to Tyler how Astbury being from England doesn’t understand what a ramp
is.
It was merely a miscommunication.
Tyler would give the band one more chance.
Sorum would remember his feeling following the show recalling I
was so sick of him.
Every time we had an opportunity to go big, he
completely f it up.
He was such a dark cloud, always hanging over us, and with every gig he just got more and
more sulky.
The thing was, Ian could have been great if only he’d stopped
destroying himself and singing about horses and butterflies—if only he’d written lyrics
people could actually understand in America.
With both him and another singer I would soon work with, that was the
main issue.
These guys could sing, but they were their own downfall.
As the tour wore on Astbury was getting more out of shape.
Sorum would recall how their dressing room was stocked full of muffins and Astbury would
as he put it “wolf down a whole lot.”
As the tour stretched on the mood in the band got worse and with the 9/11 attacks impacting
a lot of bands tours, the cult cancelled a european tour.
Even by Novmeber of 2001 Ian Astbury gave an interview in which he showed his indifference
with the article asking So what's next for The Cult? with Astbury sighing, "We're burnt.
Eventually the band was dropped by their record label and they pulled all support for the
album and the band once split once again, but there would be some bad feelings.
Sorum was owed around $140K by the band since his name was on the recording contract, but
he wouldn’t get his share of the money until years later.
Astbury would reflect back on the album years later, recalling how he hated the process
of writing the record revealing IA: Yeah, Beyond Good and Evil, definitely.
It became a living nightmare, that record.
That was the choice that we made at that time.
We decided to go down that road and it wasn't the right road, obviously.
You know, it was a road, just not the right road.it was all overproduced, you know
The band would take a four year break during which Ian Astbury fronted the doors and the
Cult would reunite for good in 2006.
Sorum would go on to form the supergroup Velvet Revolver and play in other bands including
kings of chaos and motorhead.
I’ve done a whole video on Ian Astbury’s time with the doors.
Check it out in the description box below.
That does it for today's video guys.
Thanks for watching.
Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe and we'll see you again tomorrow on rock n'
roll true stories.
Take care.