Paul Weller admitted that he was puzzled by the outpouring of national mourning after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen died in September at the age of 96, her death was followed by 10 days of national mourning.
“It’s fucking weird [national mourning] Minty-Six is old enough already. Jesus Christ. People are like, “Isn’t that sad?” What, you want her to come to work at a hundred fucking fifty or so? It’s mental,” he told Record Collector magazine via Contactmusic.
The former Jam singer also said he couldn’t understand the adoration shown to King Charles since he became sovereign.
“People said they saw people kissing Prince Charles’s hand and all that. What is it? It’s 2022. This is the 21st century, and people are talking all sorts of Cinderella nonsense,” he added.
Weller went on to condemn the amount of money spent on the Queen’s state funeral, which was rumored to cost about 8 million pounds. He said the amount was a “fucking joke” and expressed the opinion that “it’s really obscene.”
In the same interview, he sharply attacked the frontman of The Cure.
Robert Smith, calling him a “fucking fat cunt.”
He said, “I can’t stand them. Fucking fat fuck, with his lipstick and other nonsense. He’s my age too, isn’t he?
“He’s the damn end of the pen. I don’t like him. Well. There is someone I would work with. I would have slapped him or something.”
The reason for Weller’s dislike of Smith is unclear, although Louder Sound notes that The Jam inadvertently helped The Cure during the recording of their debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979).
Back in 1985, Smith mentioned Weller during an interview in which he said that punk is not a political movement. He added that people were unhappy with listening to “bands like Yes and Genesis” and instead “wanted to hear something they could dance to.”
“Even people who think they are socially aware and give their names to things like Paul Weller and the like… I mean, it doesn’t do any good in the end,” Smith explained. “Because you have to be particularly stupid to believe someone like Paul Weller.
“You have to be particularly stupid to believe someone like me.”
Smith’s bandmate Roger O’Donnell later issued his own rebuke. “I’ve always thought, as Spike Milligan said, that people who live in glass houses should pull down the blinds before taking off their pants… Mr. Weller?” wrote the keyboard player.
