Morrissey has opened up about a thwarted The Smiths reunion he recently said he’d hoped would go ahead.
Back in September, the Grammy nominee claimed he and Johnny Marr had been made a “lucrative offer” months earlier to reunite for a world tour in 2025, which his former bandmate “ignored”.
Marr later clarified that he “didn’t ignore the offer” but instead “said no”, and while he didn’t offer a reason at the time, he previously responded to one X user’s calls for The Smiths to reunite with a photo of a grinning Nigel Farage.
In a new interview published on the writer Fiona Dodwell’s Substack account, Morrissey claimed his reason for wanting to tour as The Smiths again was “because it felt like the last time such a thing would be possible”.
“We’ve all begun to grow old,” he said. “I thought the tour that was offered would be a good way of saying thank you for those who have listened for what suddenly feels like a lifetime.”
Morrissey insisted: “It wasn’t because I had any emotional attachment to Marr. I have absolutely none.”
Two years ago, Morrissey called out his former friend in another post on his website, imploring him to stop “mentioning my name” in interviews.
“Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything… from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?” he lamented.
In recent years, Morrissey has also repeatedly come under fire for his remarks about politics both in the UK and abroad, and his apparent support for far-right groups and parties.