Wolf Child: the persona behind Ian Astbury’s nasty tunes
Sometimes, the spotlight of being a rock and roll star can become too much for just one person to digest. The allure of those shining lights on you can be fun to indulge in, but it can also be just as intimidating when playing to huge crowds in front of you every night. Hence, rock stars begin developing alter egos, and Ian Astbury was ready to get into dangerous territory with The Cult when he came up with ‘The Wolf Child’ for the first time.
The music of The Cult has always been darker than your average hard rock outfit. While there might have been some gothic aesthetics laced throughout their presentation, the snarl behind Astbury’s singing has always been closer to the sounds of AC/DC than The Cure, practically straddling the line between hard rock and metal half the time.
Like all rock stars of the time, there comes a point where you get into some bad behaviour on the road. The sex, drugs, and rock and roll policy exists for a reason, and some of the biggest names in music have usually put up walls between them and the audience so they don’t know the true story of what happens behind closed doors.
Then again, if you’re living the rock star fantasy, why try to hide it? Astbury bought into the fantasy hook, line and sinker and would use it as part of his art when he started working on tracks for the group’s album Electric.
Being one of the first albums they made produced by Rick Rubin, the project kicks off with the roaring sounds of guitar on ‘Wild Flower’. While the lyrics are a bit more psychedelic than usual coming from the band, Astbury christening himself a ‘Wolf Child’ would become an omnipresent piece of his stage persona going forward.
When talking about the lyrics, Astbury envisioned the ‘Wolf Child’ as his version of a ‘Ziggy Stardust’ character, claiming, “It was my persona for when I’d stepped over the line of making sensible choices.” While The Cult never claimed to be the band with the most amount of depth, what Astbury hit on here was a lot more prophetic for what rock stars were going to be.
Since the pastiche of a rock star was about being the rebel of society who didn’t suffer fools and took what they wanted, half of the songs done in this ‘Wolf Child’ persona feel like they’re playing into the fantasy almost as a way to critique it. There’s no doubt that Astbury probably enjoys what he’s doing onstage, but it also might provide a bit of a cautionary tale to anyone who wants to go too far down that road.
Even though ‘The Wolf Child’ is reminiscent of the personas of many glam rockers, the clearest predecessor to someone like this feels like Alice Cooper. To this day, when the shock rocker goes out onstage, he always refers to his persona in the third person, saying that he has no idea what that guy will do whenever he hits the stage.
If anything, having a persona like this may have been healthier than just living up to the rock star lifestyle. You might be able to play to thousands of people in stadiums worldwide, but once those house lights go out, it might be best to leave that guy on the shelf as well.
