Morrissey is steadfastly continuing the feud with Johnny Marr by claiming his ex-bandmate ignored a ‘lucrative offer’ to follow Oasis and reform The Smiths.
A statement on Morrissey’s website, titled ‘War is Old, Art is Young’, claimed he ‘said yes’ to the offer by AEG Entertainment Group to tour as The Smiths throughout 2025, but ‘Marr ignored the offer’.
While Marr has not responded directly to the claim, this week he tweeted a photo of Nigel Farage in response to a post by a user on X suggesting a reunion.
This appeared to be a reference to Marr’s views on how Morrissey previously said the Reform UK leader would ‘make a good prime minister’.
The band – formed in Manchester in 1982 – produced four albums before breaking up in 1987, and many nostalgic fans have expressed hopes that they may follow in Oasis’ footsteps and make peace for a reunion tour.
Morrissey, 65, said on his website that the promoter ‘made a lucrative offer to both Morrissey and Marr to tour worldwide as ‘The Smiths’ throughout 2025′.
‘Morrissey said Yes to the offer; Marr ignored the offer. Morrissey undertakes a largely sold out tour of the USA in November. Marr continues to tour as a special guest to New Order.’
Few bands have burned as brightly or fast as The Smiths for so short a time and lived on in the public imagination with such interminable prestige.
The seminal 1980s Manchester act made icons out of Marr and Morrissey but they haven’t played together for years – and a reunion does not seem likely.
After releasing four albums in five years between 1982 and 1987, a tiff over royalties from their now cavernous repertoire spelled the end of the quartet – who spent their last days as an act not on stage but in a court room fighting over scraps of the estate.
Morrissey has frequently hit the headlines for his controversial political comments.
In 2018, the outspoken singer sparked outrage online by describing the jailing of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson as ‘shocking’.
The former Smiths frontman from Manchester was discussing what he felt was a lack of diversity in opinion in mainstream politics.
He said the activist being jailed for breaking contempt laws by filming outside a court was an example of how Britain’s biggest political parties were against freedom of expression.
‘It’s very obvious that Labour or the Tories do not believe in free speech,’ he told tremr. ‘I mean, look at the shocking treatment of Tommy Robinson.’
A year later, the musician sparked more controversy after reaffirming his support for far-Right party For Britain while also claiming ‘everyone prefers their own race’.
The singer also said he believed Nigel Farage would ‘make a good prime minister’, sparking criticism of the former The Smiths frontman on social media.
But others supported the rock star and said he was unfairly targeted for his views, including saying the UK was a ‘dangerously hateful place’.
He also stirred up more controversy by appearing on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the US while wearing a badge supporting For Britain, which has called for the ‘end of Islamisation of the UK’.
Marr and Morrissey’s on and off again relationship was the subject of much tabloid speculation with rumoured reunions percolating the decades the group lay dormant for.
However for much of this time, the group weren’t even on speaking terms let alone legal ones.
Finally an increasingly irritated Morrissey broke his silence on the matter in 2022 with an open letter directed at Marr.
In a blog entry on his Morrissey Central website, the musician began: ‘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.’
Continuing in his lengthy rant, Morrissey told Marr to ‘stop using my name as click-bait’.
He said: ‘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.’
Morrissey concluded: ‘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.’
Marr, who has said there is no way him and Morrissey would ever work together again due to their differences, responded: ‘An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now.’
Later in an interview with the Times, he admitted that he had been surprised by the attack but didn’t regret ‘defending himself’ from the ‘insulting’ letter.