in another new song . BD : Well , he can ’ t help himself . They ’ ve all got their go-to phrases , and I ’ m the same as a guitar player — I ’ ve got my go-to bag of tricks . And singers do the same , unless you point it out to them , like , “ Oh — are you doing that one again ?” So Mike ’ s got his goto ’ s , Ian Astbury , too — he has his go-to words . There ’ s a lot of ‘ Blood ’ — a lot of blood still left in The Cult . And there ’ s a funny story I heard once about when ( Brian ) Eno was producing a latter U2 album , and they were struggling a bit to find the right inspiration . I heard he put a big poster on the wall and had all these words that Bono , in his opinion , overused , and he said , “ Right . You can ’ t use any of these ! Now go and write some lyrics !” So it ’ s like , Whatever it takes . It was like Rick Rubin with me — No , you can ’ t use a Gretsch , no you can ’ t use echo , make it work with a Les Paul and a Marshall , and you ’ ve got about half an hour ! That ’ s how I made Electric — in a state of mild panic . It just has to be done in the moment , and you either go with it or you resist it , and fortunately , I really went with it and really got on board and didn ’ t try to sabotage the change between Love and Electric . And to get back to that version of

mixed it at very expensive studios , and we ’ d spent about as much money as you could spend , and it still wasn ’ t right . So it wasn ’ t like we didn ’ t give it a full go — we hemorrhaged money , throwing money at it trying to make it sound good , and it STILL wasn ’ t right . And we had to literally throw it in the bin , call it the most expensive demo in the world , and then go and do it again with Rick in New York . That just is what happened — it wasn ’ t our intention . But without Steve Brown , things would certainly not have gone as well for The Cult . And we lost Steve — he sadly passed away recently .

IE : Then , oddly enough , it wasn ’ t until the next album , Sonic Temple , that you got your distinct visual image , with the Pete Townshend windmill flourish , which you now feature on your merchandise . BD : Well , absolutely . We realized we were writing a rock album — and remember this was 1988 — but we thought we had written some good songs . We took a chance on producer Bob Rock because he hadn ’ t done Metallica . He hadn ’ t done Motley Crue ; he ’ d been an engineer who had only produced one album by this band Kingdom Come , which was basically a Led Zeppelin pastiche . But it was what was going on — rock was the thing , and we just wanted an image that said , ‘ Beware — this what you ’ re getting when you open this record !’ And it just happened to be a picture of me , doing a windmill with a Les Paul , and it kind of says it all .

IE : I still can ’ t quite figure out how The Cult got so huge in the biker community . BD : Well , I ’ m a biker myself , ya know ? I

bike . I both bicycle and motorcycle , and guys just see it and probably think , “ Oh , cool — he ’ s still doing it ! He ’ s 60 ; he still does the real deal , still rides motorbikes !”

IE : Given the name of another side project you ’ re occasionally in with Mike , Dead Men Walking , have you faced any serious illness as he has ? BD : Mike ’ s on another level with all of that . I had Cancer-Lite — I had prostate cancer and had my prostate removed , but it honestly wasn ’ t that massive of a big deal . It ’ s a very curable form of cancer . So I am a member of the Cancer Club , but compared to

what Mike has been through ? I mean , when we recorded the new Coloursound album , when we actually did a session , Mike showed up , and he had this big bag of pills , and he was like , “ I ’ m on a whole new medical regimen now to keep my cancer in remission .” And it ’ s a form of leukemia , but his old medicine stopped working , so they ’ ve got him on this new experimental drug , and he takes the drugs — like this big bag of stuff — and then he ’ s like , “ Alright — let ’ s go ! I ’ m gonna sing now !” The man is an unbelievable force of nature . So there ya go !

Tom Lanham

32 illinoisentertainer . com july 2021