Morrissey would apparently like to divest from the Smiths. A post on his website claims that he “has no choice but to offer for sale all of his business interests in ‘The Smiths’ to any interested party / investor” because he is “burnt out by any and all connections to” his former bandmates: guitarist Johnny Marr, drummer Mike Joyce, and the late bassist Andy Rourke.
When reached by Pitchfork, representatives for Johnny Marr had no immediate comment to share from the guitarist. And Mike Joyce’s manager told Pitchfork that the drummer does not comment on the actions or comments of his former bandmates.
Morrissey is apparently trying to offload his stake in the Smiths’ band name, artwork, song titles, lyrics, recordings, merchandise, and rights to publishing and synchronization. There is also a Gmail address for “serious investors” to contact, but Pitchfork’s email to it bounced back.
“I have had enough of malicious associations,” wrote Morrissey. “With my entire life I have paid my rightful dues to these songs and these images. I would now like to live disassociated from those who wish me nothing but ill-will and destruction, and this is the only resolution. The songs are me – they are no one else – but they bring with them business communications that go to excessive lengths to create as much dread and spite year after year. I must now protect myself, especially my health.”
The Smiths broke up in 1987, five years after forming. In his 2016 memoir, Set the Boy Free, Marr discussed the possibility of reuniting with Morrissey in 2008. Music festivals such as Coachella have reportedly offered generous performance fees to entice the British jangle-pop staples to get back together, too, but the Smiths’ remaining members have rejected those deals. Last year, Morrissey said that he agreed to a “lucrative” offer for him and Marr to perform a global tour in 2025, but that Marr ignored it. In a statement to Pitchfork, Marr clarified: “I didn’t ignore the offer. I said no.”
Also last year, Morrissey asserted that Marr obtained the trademark rights to the Smiths’ name “without any consultation to Morrissey, and without allowing Morrissey the standard opportunity of ‘objection.’” Speaking with Pitchfork, Marr’s management said that, in 2018, “Marr reached out to Morrissey, via his representatives, to work together in protecting The Smiths’ name.” Following a lack of response from Morrissey, the guitarist decided “to register the trademark himself.”
“There is also an obvious media shift to delete me from being the central essence of the Smiths,” Morrissey wrote on his website in January, “but this cannot work because I invented the group name, the song-titles, the album titles, the artwork, the vocal melodies, and all of the lyrical sentiments came from my heart … and so it’s a bit like saying Mick Jagger had nothing to do with the Stones.”
Read Pitchfork’s 5-10-15-20 interview with Johnny Marr on the music that has defined his life.
