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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIan Astbury and Billy Duffy of The Cult perform onstage during the Harley-Davidson’s Homecoming Festival – Day 1 at Veterans Park on July 14, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIan Astbury and Billy Duffy of The Cult perform onstage during the Harley-Davidson’s Homecoming Festival – Day 1 at Veterans Park on July 14, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Photo by Brecheisen\/Getty Images for Harley-Davidson<\/p>\n
The Cult <\/a>is headed to the Arizona State Fair for a 7 p.m. show on Oct. 25 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and guess who is opening for them? They are.<\/p>\n How does that work? Before frontman Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy<\/a> settled on The Cult as their name, they performed as Death Cult. That name evolved from Ian\u2019s previous band, Southern Death Cult.<\/p>\n A few years ago, Astbury and Duffy revived Death Cult for some live shows, and now they\u2019re doing it again. The decision, Astbury unabashedly says, was prompted by \u201cintelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEmotional intelligence,\u201d he adds, taking it further and explaining how the present time is an exceptional time for this to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cOur band has always done things our way, so this particular incarnation of this tour isn\u2019t a nostalgic tip of the hat. It\u2019s more that we\u2019re in a renaissance right now and everything is on the table. Everything is on equal footing in terms of our body of work. \u2026 Perhaps with digital technology and social media, nostalgia has almost been eradicated in some way. From that perspective, everything we\u2019ve ever written is current.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThink of a Rothko painting,\u201d Astbury says. \u201cIf you maintain that train of thought, it doesn\u2019t matter if it was painted 2000 years ago or yesterday. It\u2019s your immediate experience in front of that painting that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Barry Brecheisen\/Getty Images for Harley-Davidson<\/p>\n That perspective, should you choose to activate it, truly can broaden your expectations. Rather than labeling bands that have been playing for several years as \u2018nostalgia acts,\u2019 save the nostalgia part for yourself. Enjoy the memories the music may conjure, but dig the bands for where they\u2019re at presently.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since releasing music as The Cult, they\u2019ve dropped numerous hits, from the early \u201cSpiritwalker,\u201d to \u201cRain,\u201d \u201cShe Sells Sanctuary\u201d and \u201cFire Woman\u201d \u2014 the list continues \u2014 which you\u2019ll surely get a tast of at the show, as well as other career-spanning tracks that boast their big sound that mixes hard rock, gothic rock and a little metal.\u201d<\/p>\n Further emphasizing the desire to not only be present in the moment, Astbury says creating each show\u2019s set is \u201csetting an intention to create a visceral experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an immersive, visceral experience for the people who come. We become one amorphous entity, and then we disperse. Perhaps it\u2019s a heady or esoteric way to think, but I think it reflects where we are now. We are beyond genre, we are beyond format. Everything\u2019s on the table,\u201d he says, citing artists who create multidimensional worlds that inspire him, from Matthew Barney to David Lynch<\/a>.<\/p>\n No band is going to be around for as long as The Cult has and not have ridden the roller coaster both ways with a few loops in the middle. Staying true, though, to their inherent ways of looking at the world is why Astbury says they\u2019ve always remained an \u201coutlier, but not by intention or design \u2014 certainly not.\u201d<\/p>\n Navigating the business at a younger age certainly reinforces keeping an awareness of your convictions and staying steeped in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSigning contracts when you\u2019re almost a child in perpetuity to adults who knew what they were doing in terms of corraling and manipulating and taking advantage of youthful naivete, well, it\u2019s not being coerced necessarily, but it is a time in life when you certainly might not have the wherewithal to fully understand the implications of what you were putting your signature to until later in life. When you begin to understand how that realm works with conditions and contracts and obligations and what happens when those things aren\u2019t fulfilled, you learn to respond in the moment with what you\u2019ve got and what resources you have available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n As far as what the future holds for The Cult, the band isn\u2019t thinking of that right now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are fully in the moment of the tour. There are so many parts. We have a high-wire act and there\u2019s no safety net. Nutrition, sleep, meditation, contemplation and maintenance are how we spend our time. You have to be fully present \u2014 especially the way we perform,\u201d Astbury says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t waddle out there and waddle through songs, that\u2019s just not our style,\u201d he laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ian-A.jpg\")
Ian Astbury of The Cult performs onstage during Harley-Davidson\u2019s Homecoming Festival at Veterans Park on July 14, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. <\/p>\n