The Cult's American Tour Is A Return, Not A Resurrection

The Cult are getting back together for a 19-date U.S. tour starting Wednesday after putting things on hold following 2001's Beyond Good And Evil album.

Cult guitarist Billy Duffy has kept himself occupied in the interim on a variety of projects, including making music as Siddons with Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell. He'll also appear in an upcoming horror flick called Sin-Jin Smyth alongside Korn frontman Jonathan Davis.

Singer Ian Astbury stood in for the late Jim Morrison while touring with litigation magnet the Doors Of The 21st Century along with original Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger over the past few years.

Astbury's time with the classic rockers was an inspiration to the sometimes temperamental singer.

"Working with those guys really helped me to finesse myself as a human being," he told RollingStone.com.

"Because all of a sudden, I wasn't 'Ian Astubury of The Cult' — but I'm definitely not 'Ian Astbury of The Doors,' I had no delusions of that. I had to look at myself and my own shortcomings and strengths and deal with a lot of internal issues."

The rocky relationship between Duffy and Astbury was reconciled and The Cult reformed by re-recruiting bassist Chris Wyse, who played on the last album, and White Zombie drummer John Tempesta. The group have thus far worked up to an 18-song set list during rehearsals.While Astbury has enjoyed the return to singing Cult songs, he insisted that there are no plans for the band to make a full-blown comeback and return to the studio to record new material.

"This run of dates is called A Return To Wild — not Resurrection, Insurrection, Sonic Interjection, Revival," he said. "It's fucking authentically real."