Roger O'Donnell
Roger O'Donnell (born 29 October 1955) is an English keyboardist best known for his long association with The Cure. He first joined The Cure in 1987 as a touring keyboardist and later became a full member, marking three separate stints with the band: 1987–1990, 1995–2005, and from the early 2010s to the present.
O'Donnell grew up in East London in a musical family and started his career in 1976 backing Arthur Brown. He played with jazz-fusion groups and with future Cure member Boris Williams, and he also worked with Berlin, The Psychedelic Furs, and Thompson Twins as a touring keyboardist. He became known for his use of synthesizers, especially Sequential Circuits models.
With The Cure, he contributed to the 1989 album Disintegration and appeared in videos for Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, though he did not play on the studio tracks. He left the band in 1990, released the solo album Grey Clouds Red Sky in 1994, then rejoined in 1995 and played on Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, and The Cure. He left again in 2005 during a lineup change, then released more solo work and started a label with Erin Lang.
O'Donnell rejoined The Cure after collaborating with Lol Tolhurst and performed with them again from the early 2010s onward, remaining with the band. The Cure were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, with O'Donnell as a member. He has continued releasing solo material, including the 2022 album 7 Different Words for Love, and he composed a classical suite called Quieter Trees.
In September 2024, it was revealed that O'Donnell had been diagnosed with lymphoma the previous year and shared his health battle publicly.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:40 (CET).