Moreno Reveals Sad Reason He Wanted Robert Smith on Crosses Song

There’s no doubt that The Cure‘s Robert Smith is a musical icon and if you can get him for a guest spot, that’s a major coup for your record. But Smith’s status had little to do with why ††† (Crosses) vocalist Chino Moreno wanted the musician for their song “Girls Float † Boys Cry.”

While speaking with Paste Magazine, Moreno delved into finding the right fit for the song with Smith, but coming to that conclusion as things evolved with the somber track.

“With the song that we worked on, ‘Girls Float † Boys Cry,’ it wasn’t so much the music itself that made me want to have him on there. I feel like there are little nods to The Cure within the song, but that wasn’t it,” explained Moreno, who then revealed, “For me, that was one of the saddest songs in this whole batch.”

Further elaborating, he recalled, “It was maybe a little over two years ago when that musical bed for that was first created, and… I don’t want to say I wasn’t in a good place, but I was just sad. Everything I say in that song is exactly the way I was feeling. And then it had kind of been put on the back burner. When we brought it back out, I had to complete the lyrics and go in and actually sing the song. I wasn’t in the same place, thankfully, but it was such a snapshot of that time that I was able to dive-in to that moment for a minute and remember what I was feeling.”

So while Moreno was maybe having a more difficult time delving into the sadness, he thought of Smith as the perfect vocalist to convey that emotion.

“One of my favorite things about Robert Smith is his ability to to really convey the sadness within a song. I just so happen to lean a lot towards the more melancholy Cure stuff, and the sadder Cure songs are some of my favorites. So I thought, ‘If I can get Robert, this would be the perfect song to have him take part in.’ Luckily, he obliged,” says the singer.

Moreno said he sent the lyrics he had to Smith with The Cure vocalist responding back that he’d love to be part of the song.

READ MORE: 13 Heavy Songs We’ve Definitely Cried To

That said, the fact that he was able to collaborate with one of his musical idols didn’t quite sink in immediately. “I’d talked to him over the years about working together on something but, you know, I wasn’t sure it was ever going to really happen, not until he sent the vocal back with his voice singing these words that I wrote,” says Moreno. “That’s when it really hit me, like ‘Wow, this is something I wouldn’t have believed if you’d told me 20 years ago.'”

The song appears on the latest ††† (Crosses) album, Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete, which is currently available through the band’s website, where you can also find their 2024 tour dates.

††† (Crosses), “Girls Float + Boys Cry”