Morrissey Central "OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR." (January 25, 2022)

This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?

Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?

If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?

The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? 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 ?

You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ - not me.

Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that. Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me. Our period together was many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then. There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait. I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon. Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982.

Morrissey. January 2022.

OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR. - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR.

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Marr, January 26th:


Some related posts moved to this thread: Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey's open letter via Twitter (January 26, 2022)

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Related item:

• Express: "The Smiths split ‘bruised me emotionally, it turned to s*** with Morrissey’ – Johnny Marr" via Uncut Magazine - January 13, 2022

Media items:

• BBC: Morrissey calls on Johnny Marr to 'stop using my name as clickbait' - January 26, 2022
• Daily Mail: There is a fight that never goes out: Morrissey accuses Johnny Marr of 'using my name as click bait' and insists The Smiths bandmate 'knows nothing of my life' in scathing letter - January 26, 2022
• Far Out: Morrissey pens scathing open letter to Johnny Marr: "You don't know me" - January 25, 2022
• Fiona Dodwell: "From Morrissey to Marr: Why THAT Open Letter Was a Long Time Coming" (January 26, 2022)
• Guardian: ‘You don’t know me’: Morrissey accuses Johnny Marr of using him for clickbait - January 26, 2022
• Independent: ‘Move on’: Morrissey tells Johnny Marr to stop talking about him in interviews - January 26, 2022
• MEN: 'Move on. It's as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me': Morrissey tells Johnny Marr to stop talking about him - January 26, 2022
• NME: Morrissey asks Johnny Marr to stop mentioning him in interviews - January 25, 2022
• Rolling Stone: Still Ill: Morrissey Really Wants Johnny Marr to Stop Talking About Him - January 26, 2022
• Stereogum: Morrissey To Johnny Marr: Keep My Name Out Of Your Mouth - January 25, 2022
• The Telegraph: Why Morrissey and Johnny Marr hate each other (paywalll) - January 27, 2022 (transcript at Yahoo!)

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Just a guess - reunion's off
FWD.

 

[Johnny who?]

This is very Trump-esque behaviour from Morrissey. He's clearly got increasingly irritated at being mentioned in interviews by Johnny (almost always in answer to a question btw) and has decided that this is some kind of hate campaign against him and that Johnny is constantly throwing insults at him, none of which is true when you look at what Johnny has actually said over the years. Most of the time he's been extremely complimentary, and even when he has made a negative comment it's been done with the kind of grown-up diplomacy Morrissey doesn't even know exists.

But, like Trump, truth and reality don't matter to Morrissey, or his most craven of fans. It's how they *feel* that counts, even if those feelings are based on utter nonsense. So he spews out this ridiculous, paranoid rant and up jump all the deluded diehards saying he's 'right' and acting as though Johnny has been repeatedly criticising Morrissey - which he hasn't. At all. Ever.

As for Morrissey's transparent and childish digs at Johnny's career - one of his most recent projects involved arranging and playing on the title track of last year's biggest movie, co-written and sung by the biggest young music star on the planet right now. Morrissey, on the other hand, hasn't had a hit single for 13 years and the last time he even scraped into either of the main US singles charts was in 2004.

Morrissey is pop music's Donald Trump, and he's every bit as embarrassing, bitter, deluded and tiresome as his political twin.

The only thing that is embarassing here is your post, for the woke crowd, everything they don't like is just simply boiled down to being Trumpesque, with no real thought put into it.
Ah, the progressives and their alternate reality, if would be funny if not so sad. You all really need to find a purpose, some meaning in life.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

I assume that is a rhetorical question. If there is one fact about Morrissey that everyone can agree on, it's that he sells copy!

Which is the reason of the open letter. Basically he seems to be saying...

Johnny your solo work should be enough, you don’t need to mention me in a negative way for publicity.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

That's the same quote reproduced over and over.

Yes it got him publicity.

He doesn't mention Morrissey - isn't that what he wanted? LOL.

Did you even read my whole post? Lol.

I already said ....

‘Got Johnny some nice clickbait publicity. Maybe Morrissey didn’t mind that, since Marr didn’t actually mention his name, but Marr knew that everyone would know what he was getting at. Just look at the headlines.’

 

[Catholic]

It's been decades & Marr feels the need to highlight that Morrissey is the only person he's ever worked with who he isn't friends with, isn't loyal to, is totally different from & was in the only band that turned to shit.

At a time when the music press has been demonising Morrissey & therefore it might be the popular thing to say.

It's not unreasonable to be wounded by that.

Well put indeed.

 

[Darius Meo]

This is very Trump-esque behaviour from Morrissey. He's clearly got increasingly irritated at being mentioned in interviews by Johnny (almost always in answer to a question btw) and has decided that this is some kind of hate campaign against him and that Johnny is constantly throwing insults at him, none of which is true when you look at what Johnny has actually said over the years. Most of the time he's been extremely complimentary, and even when he has made a negative comment it's been done with the kind of grown-up diplomacy Morrissey doesn't even know exists.

But, like Trump, truth and reality don't matter to Morrissey, or his most craven of fans. It's how they *feel* that counts, even if those feelings are based on utter nonsense. So he spews out this ridiculous, paranoid rant and up jump all the deluded diehards saying he's 'right' and acting as though Johnny has been repeatedly criticising Morrissey - which he hasn't. At all. Ever.

As for Morrissey's transparent and childish digs at Johnny's career - one of his most recent projects involved arranging and playing on the title track of last year's biggest movie, co-written and sung by the biggest young music star on the planet right now. Morrissey, on the other hand, hasn't had a hit single for 13 years and the last time he even scraped into either of the main US singles charts was in 2004.

Morrissey is pop music's Donald Trump, and he's every bit as embarrassing, bitter, deluded and tiresome as his political twin.

Respectfully speaking, I think your comparison is not very accurate at all. As I posted previously, Johnny is turning into George Takei, the Star Trek character actor from the 1960's who never became a star and can only garner some fleeting media coverage in modern times by constantly nit-picking and attacking the legendary William Shatner, a man he only worked with in a limited capacity more than 50 years ago.

 

[SuedeMoz]

What's sad about all this, is that Morrissey felt the need to publish it as an open letter, rather than get in contact with Johnny directly (they must surely has some channel available between them).

We all knew a reunion was 99.9999% impossible, but with the relationship this bad, I don't see them even capable of working together enough to get us any more archive releases, so forget about that proposed 'Strangeways' collectors edition with demos and stuff.

Best case scenario: this letter leads to Johnny getting in touch with Moz in private, and they get talking and manage to repair some of the damage between them and move forward. So it might end up a positive thing. But I'm not holding my breath.

I think it's really an "open letter" to the music press in an attempt to garner coverage for Morrissey. Right now there are no upcoming shows, no record contract, and no release date for an album. In other words, no reason for the press to discuss or mention him at all. We'll see if he gets some headlines now.

 

[Longtime-Lurker]

I thought the letter was pretty funny. I wonder how Marr will respond, if he does. Really I find both sides of the whole debacle understandable.

JM has been doing interviews quite prolifically lately to promote his album, and he’s always interviewed more in general. He tends to mention Morrissey/The Smiths quite briefly, if he does, and I found him to seem relatively neutral. The trouble is he’ll do a five-page interview with a single line about Morrissey, and that single line is all that’s in the headlines and all anyone talks about. As for banning questions on certain topics- why would he? I don’t see why he would. If someone asks, he gives a short answer and moves on. Seems fair enough to me.

On the other hand, these headlines of “Johnny Marr says X about Morrissey/The Smiths!” is all someone like Morrissey is likely to see. I’d get annoyed too, and I could get how it could be hurtful. True as it may be, hearing your ex-parter say The Smiths turned to shit must sting. Even if he’s been cordial the past few years, JM has really slagged Morrissey off in the past. I’m sure all things Marr’s said over the years were in mind when penning the letter. And for all his faults, I can’t ever recall Morrissey badmouthing Johnny. He’s really stayed “true to him”, in that way.

In general, Morrissey seems the type to really read into things, and Johnny the type to say things without really thinking about how they could be read into by someone who really reads into things. Take JM saying he was close with all his old associate except “the obvious one”- I’m sure he meant it as a light amend to his previous statement so people don’t somehow think he and Morrissey are pals again. How would someone like Moz take that? That everyone JM has ever worked with post-Smiths has been more bearable than Morrissey. Ouch. Keeping these sorts of interpretations in mind gives a lot of context to the letter, for me.

I am really very curious how JM will respond to all this. I suspect this might have taken him by surprise. We’ll see soon, either way.

 

[Lujissey]

Fuuaaaa!! It's the emotional discharge of a sensitive man named Morrissey who must have felt mortally wounded when Johnny M spoke last time, saying something very ugly about Morrissey, I didn't like anything that Marr said what he said and I didn't like it at all when I found out through Autobio, how Johnny had given the nickname Moz to Morrissey, I thought it was something affectionate but no, it was something derogatory and cruel to call him misero, it is something very hurtful

 

[celibate]

well written Morrissey, hope Marr will be proffesional enough to do this, but I beg to differ.

 

[Anonymous]

Respectfully speaking, I think your comparison is not very accurate at all. As I posted previously, Johnny is turning into George Takei, the Star Trek character actor from the 1960's who never became a star and can only garner some fleeting media coverage in modern times by constantly nit-picking and attacking the legendary William Shatner, a man he only worked with in a limited capacity more than 50 years ago.

The difference is, somehow (and quite bizarrely)in 2022 we have reached a point where Johnny has a successul career, a record contract, and is on the cover of magazines. Morrissey's managed to drag his own career and reputation into the gutter can't get arrested at this point, and sees all the plaudits that should be going his way have evaporated. I think he's just lashing out in jealousy. If Morrissey's own career was going well, he wouldn't give a damn what Johnny was saying about him.

 

[Johnny who?]

The difference is, somehow (and quite bizarrely)in 2022 we have reached a point where Johnny has a successul career, a record contract, and is on the cover of magazines. Morrissey's managed to drag his own career and reputation into the gutter can't get arrested at this point, and sees all the plaudits that should be going his way have evaporated. I think he's just lashing out in jealousy. If Morrissey's own career was going well, he wouldn't give a damn what Johnny was saying about him.

Right.
Morrissey just had a record breaking residency in Las Vegas and Johnny is opening for Blondie

 

[Deleted member 29417]

The difference is, somehow (and quite bizarrely)in 2022 we have reached a point where Johnny has a successul career, a record contract, and is on the cover of magazines. Morrissey's managed to drag his own career and reputation into the gutter can't get arrested at this point, and sees all the plaudits that should be going his way have evaporated. I think he's just lashing out in jealousy. If Morrissey's own career was going well, he wouldn't give a damn what Johnny was saying about him.

Morrissey has mentioned it before - in 2012 to GQ.

I'm sure you think too much has been made of that—of the Johnny Marr-Morrissey thing, that it was like some divorce, but it sounds like it felt like that.

Yes. And I felt the music really had its place. And it shouldn't be destroyed or curtailed. I thought the Smiths would still exist and would be on our thirtieth album. I think with time he realized he had made an awful decision. So the only way that he could substantiate that decision was to maintain that I was a monster. So that became depressing, and the aftermath of the group's existence became enormously depressing.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

well written Morrissey, hope Marr will be proffesional enough to do this, but I beg to differ.

Godspeed Smiths reunion ?

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

What's sad about all this, is that Morrissey felt the need to publish it as an open letter, rather than get in contact with Johnny directly (they must surely has some channel available between them).

We all knew a reunion was 99.9999% impossible, but with the relationship this bad, I don't see them even capable of working together enough to get us any more archive releases, so forget about that proposed 'Strangeways' collectors edition with demos and stuff.

Best case scenario: this letter leads to Johnny getting in touch with Moz in private, and they get talking and manage to repair some of the damage between them and move forward. So it might end up a positive thing. But I'm not holding my breath.

That's a nice take on things.

 

[21punksalute]

If Johnny Marr ever does stop mentioning Morrissey he will disappear and 24 minutes

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

I think it's really an "open letter" to the music press in an attempt to garner coverage for Morrissey. Right now there are no upcoming shows, no record contract, and no release date for an album. In other words, no reason for the press to discuss or mention him at all. We'll see if he gets some headlines now.

Do you think the publicity from this
will have labels queuing up at his door with contracts ?

 

[Lujissey]

There was a strong bond between them, but Moz (I said this nickname with deep love on my part) considered it to be too much. that Marr had exceeded the limits and that he was no longer willing for Johnny to unload his shit on him.that's why he wrote this letter to vent, I think Moz thought very well before publishing this letter, and I think his attitude is correct, I support my special singer because I don't like the psychological abuse to which Moz is always subjected

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Morrissey has mentioned it before - in 2012 to GQ.

I'm sure you think too much has been made of that—of the Johnny Marr-Morrissey thing, that it was like some divorce, but it sounds like it felt like that.

Yes. And I felt the music really had its place. And it shouldn't be destroyed or curtailed. I thought the Smiths would still exist and would be on our thirtieth album. I think with time he realized he had made an awful decision. So the only way that he could substantiate that decision was to maintain that I was a monster. So that became depressing, and the aftermath of the group's existence became enormously depressing.

Yes very true. So Morrissey was troubled by Marr’s comments years ago, way before Marr’s recent... ‘success’.

 

[ThePoliticalRevolution]

mercury is in retrograde, babes. everyone take a deep breath.

 

[Lujissey]

Moz is the best singer in the world I love him and I support him it's okay that he has expressed his opinion, if he feels that JMarr uses him to promote himself. If this is true, it is a mediocre attitude, and it is appropriate to respond. An unstoppable soul like Moz must move forward with his career and exert an unstoppable massive action to make his album see the light in some way .!!!!! Moz VIVA MOZ CARAJO!!!!