The Cult's Disastrous Reunion With Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum Beyond Good & Ev

The Cult's disastrous reunion with Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum for 2001's albums Beyond Good and Evil.

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The british Cult would burst onto the scene in the mid 80’s with a string of successful records including Love, Electric and Sonic Temple. The two constants in the band has always been frontman Ian Astbury & guitarist Billy Duffy who are also the principal songwriters. But as the 90’s rolled around the Cult were in for a rude awakening. Their first record of the decade 1991’s Ceremony would be released at possibly the worst time as it would be put out in September alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion records plus you had Pearl Jam’s Ten and Metallica’s Black album come out the month before. The album soon got lost in the shuffle and also represented a stylistic shift for the group as Astbury and Duffy were butting heads over the musical direction of the band, so Ceremony represented a compromise. The album ultimately peaked at number 24 on the album charts and sold half a million copies in the states, but it didn’t do as well commercially as the band’s past efforts. Also hampering the band at this time was a $61 Million lawsuit they were involved in over the cover art for the album. The family of the boy on the album cover sued the band claiming they never gave permission for the photo to be used, while the band claimed they went through the appropriate legal avenues.

The Cult would return in 1994 with their self titled album that was more influenced by alternative rock at the time. The album sold worse than Ceremony and it ultimately led to the band breaking up. The band would fall apart while on tour in South America with Billy Duffy telling 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 really comfortable with success. We’re just not cut out for being popstars. The rest of the tour dates would be scrapped. Astbury would tell Newday “I left the band because I was exhausted after 12 years with Duffy. I had given everything i could in our relationship and made a lot of sacrifices in my life. Time with my family and time with yourself to be away from the pressures of being objectified as the singer in a rock n’ roll band. Also contributing to his decision to take a break was his struggles with substance abuse, his marriage falling apart and the changing musical scene and how the rock n’ roll frontman persona had changed from a decade prior. He would remark to an interviewer. Look how they dress. They don’t dress like peacocks. Their music didn’t celebrate sexuality.

During their time apart in the mid 90’s Astbury and Duffy would play in separate musical groups, but it would be former Cult and Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt sorum who instigated a reunion. Sorum had joined the cult during the sonic temple tour days and soon departed to join Guns N’ Roses to help them make their Use Your Illusion records and tour the album. He had been fired by frontman Axl Rose in 1997. It was one night in the late 90’s he was sitting on his couch watching TV when he saw Jay Leno’s Tonight show and saw buckcherry performing. He would call up Duffy and according to his autobiography double talkin jive he’d say ‘billy! I just saw a band on tv and they are a watered down poor man’s version of the cult. I think rock n’ roll could be coming back.” the musicians would talk about their longstanding issues and what they were now up to and Sorum proposed that they get the band back together, put out a press release and book a tour. Duffy was into the idea and they enlisted bassist Martin LeNoble and the Cult were now back and booked a sold out theater tour across America. The success of the band’s reunion tour resulted in record labels showing up to their gigs and making offers, one of the labels who pitched to the cult was atlantic who offered them a million dollar advan