This lovely man has done it again. Morrissey has released a statement about his websiteMorrissey Central, in which he stated that there is a “clear shift in the media to eliminate [him] to be the central essence of The Smiths.”
In the blog post, titled “Cancel Culture Starts at Home,” Morrissey refuted apparent claims by Rough Trade Records founder Geoff Travis and unnamed media publications about the origins of The Smiths.
“Several news sites now claim that the initial meeting at Rough Trade Records was with 'Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke,' although Andy was not even a committed member of the band at the time,” Morrissey wrote. “The meeting, of course, was between Morrissey and Marr. Even Geoff Travis has suddenly decided that he 'doesn't remember who Johnny was with', even though Geoff looked me straight in the eye earlier that day and said 'we'd like to release Hand In Glove immediately.'” Then, most importantly, he told me his name was Geoff with a G, not Jeff with a J. The dogs are biting!”
Morrissey claimed that, in fact, he “made up the group name, the song titles, the album titles, the artwork, the vocal melodies and all the lyrical sentiments came from [his] heart… It's a bit like saying that Mick Jagger had nothing to do with the Stones.”
This, of course, is not the first time that Morrissey has displayed a possibly paranoid attitude about his reputation: he previously accused Capitol Records of sabotaging his album for his “overly diverse” views and joked about his possible murder in a television interview.
Morrissey signed off the blog post by stating that he will “fight until his last breath” to keep his central role in The Smiths recognised.
thanks to our partners at consequence.net