Morrissey

This article is about the singer. For other uses, see Morrissey (disambiguation).

"Steven Morrissey" redirects here. For the footballer, see Steven Morrissey (footballer).

Morrissey
Morrissey in January 2005
Background information
Birth name	Steven Patrick Morrissey
Born	(1959-05-22) 22 May 1959 Davyhulme, Lancashire, England
Genres	Alternative rock indie pop indie rock jangle pop
Occupations	Singer songwriter author
Instrument	Vocals
Years active	1977–present
Labels	HMV Parlophone Sire RCA Reprise Mercury Island Attack Sanctuary Decca Lost Highway Major Minor Liberty Harvest BMG
Website	morrisseyofficial.com

Steven Patrick Morrissey (/ˈmɒrɪsiː/; born 22 May 1959), known mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer, songwriter, and author. He came to prominence as the frontman of the rock band the Smiths, which was active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, he has pursued a successful solo career. Morrissey's music is characterised by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecating and black humour, and anti-establishment stances.

Born to working-class Irish immigrants in Davyhulme, Lancashire, Morrissey grew up in nearby Manchester. As a child, he developed a love of literature, kitchen sink realism, and pop music. In the late 1970s, he fronted punk rock band the Nosebleeds with little success before beginning a career in music journalism and writing several books on music and film in the early 1980s. He formed the Smiths with Johnny Marr in 1982 and the band soon attracted national recognition for their eponymous debut album. As the band's frontman, Morrissey attracted attention for his trademark quiff and witty and sardonic lyrics. Deliberately avoiding rock machismo, he cultivated the image of a sexually ambiguous social outsider who embraced celibacy. The Smiths released three further studio albums—Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, and Strangeways, Here We Come—and had a string of hit singles. The band were critically acclaimed and attracted a cult following. Personal differences between Morrissey and Marr resulted in the separation of the Smiths in 1987.

In 1988 Morrissey launched his solo career with Viva Hate. This album and its follow-ups—Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal, and Vauxhall and I—all did well on the UK Albums Chart and spawned multiple hit singles. Replacing Marr, he took on Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer as his main co-writers. During this time, his image began to shift into that of a burlier figure who toyed with patriotic imagery and working-class masculinity. In the mid-to-late 1990s, his albums Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted also charted but were less well received. Relocating to Los Angeles, he took a musical hiatus from 1998 to 2003 before releasing a successful comeback album, You Are the Quarry, in 2004. Ensuing years saw the release of albums Ringleader of the Tormentors, Years of Refusal, World Peace Is None of Your Business, Low in High School, California Son, and I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, as well as his autobiography and his debut novel, List of the Lost.

Highly influential, Morrissey has been credited as a seminal figure in the emergence of indie rock and Britpop. He is regarded as one of the greatest lyricists in British history and his work has been the subject of academic study. He has been a controversial figure throughout his music career due to his forthright opinions and outspoken nature—endorsing vegetarianism and animal rights, criticising royalty and prominent politicians, and defending a particular vision of English national identity while critiquing the impact of immigration on the UK. In a 2006 poll for the BBC's Culture Show, Morrissey was voted the second-greatest living British cultural icon.

Early life

Childhood: 1959–1976

I lost myself in music at a very early age, and I remained there ... I did fall in love with the voices I heard, whether they were male or female. I loved those people. I really, really did love those people. For what it was worth, I gave them my life ... my youth. Beyond the perimeter of pop music there was a drop at the end of the world.

— Morrissey, 1991.

Steven Patrick Morrissey was born on 22 May 1959 at Park Hospital in Davyhulme, Lancashire. His parents, Elizabeth (née Dwyer) and Peter Morrissey, were working-class Irish Catholics who had emigrated to Manchester from Dublin with his only sibling, elder sister Jacqueline, a year before his birth. Morrissey claims he was named after American actor Steve Cochran, although he may instead have been named in honour of his father's brother who died in infancy, "Patrick Steven Morrissey". His earliest home was a council house at 17 Harper Street in the Hulme area of inner Manchester. Living in that area as a child, he was deeply affected by the Moors murders, in which a number of local children were killed; the crimes had a lasting impression on him and would inspire the lyrics of the Smiths song "Suffer Little Children". He also became aware of the anti-Irish sentiment in British society against Irish immigrants to Britain. In 1970, the family moved to another council house at 384 King's Road in Stretford.

Following an early education at St. Wilfred's Primary School, Morrissey failed his 11-plus exam and proceeded to St. Mary's Technical Modern School, an experience he found unpleasant. He excelled at athletics, though he was an unpopular loner at the school. He has been critical of his formal education, later stating, "The education I received was so basically evil and brutal. All I learnt was to have no self-esteem and to feel ashamed without knowing why." He left school in 1975, having received no formal qualifications. He continued his education at Stretford Technical College, where he gained three O-Levels in English literature, sociology, and the General Paper. In 1975, he travelled to the U.S. to visit an aunt who lived in New Jersey. The relationship between his parents was strained, and they ultimately separated in December 1976, with his father moving out of the family home.

Morrissey's librarian mother encouraged her son's interest in reading. He took an interest in feminist literature, and particularly liked the Irish author Oscar Wilde, whom he came to idolise. The young Morrissey was a keen fan of the television soap opera Coronation Street, which focused on working-class communities in Manchester; he sent proposed scripts and storylines to the show's production company, Granada Television, although all were rejected. He was also a fan of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey and its 1961 film adaptation, which was a drama focusing on working-class life in Salford. Many of his later songs directly quoted A Taste of Honey.

Of his youth, Morrissey has said, "Pop music was all I ever had, and it was completely entwined with the image of the pop star. I remember feeling the person singing was actually with me and understood me and my predicament." He later revealed that the first record he purchased was Marianne Faithfull's 1964 single "Come and Stay With Me". He became a glam rock fan in the 1970s, enjoying the work of English artists like T. Rex, David Bowie, and Roxy Music. He was also a fan of American glam rock artists such as Sparks, Jobriath, and the New York Dolls. He formed a British fan club for the latter, attracting members through small adverts in the back pages of music magazines. It was through the New York Dolls' interest in female pop singers from the 1960s that Morrissey too developed a fascination for such artists, including Sandie Shaw, Twinkle, and Dusty Springfield.

Early bands and published books: 1977–1981

Morrissey idolised American film actor James Dean and published a book about him.

Having left formal education, Morrissey proceeded through a series of jobs, as a clerk for the civil service and then the Inland Revenue, as a salesperson in a record store, and as a hospital porter, before abandoning employment and claiming unemployment benefits. He used much of the money from these jobs to purchase tickets for gigs, attending performances by Talking Heads, the Ramones, and Blondie. He regularly attended concerts, having a particular interest in the alternative and post-punk music scene. Having met the guitarist Billy Duffy in November 1977, Morrissey agreed to become the vocalist for Duffy's punk band the Nosebleeds. Morrissey co-wrote a number of songs with the band—"Peppermint Heaven", "I Get Nervous" and "I Think I'm Ready for the Electric Chair"—and performed with them in support slots for Jilted John and then Magazine. The band soon disbanded.

After the Nosebleeds' break-up, Morrissey followed Duffy to join Slaughter & the Dogs, briefly replacing original singer Wayne Barrett. He recorded four songs with the band and they auditioned for a record deal in London. After the audition fell through, Slaughter & the Dogs became Studio Sweethearts, without Morrissey. Morrissey came to be known as a minor figure within Manchester's punk community. By 1981, Morrissey had become a close friend of Linder Sterling, the frontwoman of punk-jazz ensemble Ludus; her lyrics and style of singing both influenced him. Through Sterling, he came to know Howard Devoto and Richard Boon. At the time, Morrissey's best male friend was James Maker; he would visit Maker in London or they would meet in Manchester, where they visited the city's gay bars and gay clubs, in one case having to escape from a gang of gay bashers.

Wanting to become a professional writer, Morrissey considered a career in music journalism. He frequently wrote letters to the music press and was eventually hired by the weekly music review publication Record Mirror. He wrote several short books for local publishing company Babylon Books: in 1981 they released a 24-page booklet he had written on the New York Dolls, which sold 3000 copies. This was followed by James Dean is Not Dead, about the late American film star James Dean. Morrissey had developed a love of Dean and had covered his bedroom with pictures of the dead film-star.

The Smiths

Establishing the Smiths: 1982–1984

Main article: The Smiths

In August 1978, Morrissey was briefly introduced to the 14-year old Johnny Marr by mutual acquaintances at a Patti Smith gig held at Manchester's Apollo Theatre. Several years later, in May 1982, Marr turned up on the doorstep of Morrissey's house, there to ask Morrissey if he was interested in co-founding a band. Marr had been impressed that Morrissey had authored a book on the New York Dolls, and was inspired to turn up on his doorstep following the example of Jerry Leiber, who had formed his working partnership with Mike Stoller after turning up at the latter's door. According to Morrissey: "We got on absolutely famously. We were very similar in drive." The next day, Morrissey phoned Marr to confirm that he would be interested in forming a band with him. Steve Pomfret—who had served as the band's first bassist—soon abandoned the band, to be replaced by Dale Hibbert. Around the time of the band's formation, Morrissey decided that he would be publicly known only by his surname, with Marr referring to him as "Mozzer" or "Moz". In 1983, he forbade those around him from using the name "Steven", which he despised. Morrissey was also responsible for choosing the band name of "The Smiths", later informing an interviewer that "it was the most ordinary name and I thought it was time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces".

Alongside developing their own songs, they also developed a cover of the Cookies' "I Want a Boy for My Birthday", the latter reflecting their deliberate desire to transgress established norms of gender and sexuality in rock in a manner inspired by the New York Dolls. In August 1982, they recorded their first demo at Manchester's Decibel Studios, and Morrissey took the demo recording to Factory Records, but they weren't interested. In late summer 1982, Mike Joyce was adopted as the band's drummer after a successful audition. In October 1982, they then gave their first public performance, as a support act for Blue Rondo à la Turk at Manchester's The Ritz. Hibbert however was unhappy with what he perceived as the band's gay aesthetic; in turn, Morrissey and Marr were unhappy with his bass playing, and so he was removed from the band and replaced by Marr's old school friend Andy Rourke.

After the record company EMI turned them down, Morrissey and Marr visited London to hand a cassette of their recordings to Geoff Travis of the independent record label Rough Trade Records. Although not signing them to a contract straight away, he agreed to cut their song "Hand in Glove" as a single. Morrissey chose a homoerotic cover design in the form of a Jim French photograph. It was released in May 1983. It was championed by DJ John Peel, as were all their later singles, but it failed to chart. The band soon generated controversy when Garry Bushell of tabloid newspaper The Sun alleged that their B-side "Handsome Devil" was an endorsement of paedophilia. The band denied this, with Morrissey stating that the song "has nothing to do with children, and certainly nothing to do with child molesting". In the wake of their single, the band performed their first significant London gig, gained radio airplay with a John Peel session, and obtained their first interviews in music magazines NME and Sounds.

The follow-up singles "This Charming Man" and "What Difference Does It Make?" fared better when they reached numbers 25 and 12 respectively on the UK Singles Chart. Aided by praise from the music press and a series of studio sessions for Peel and David Jensen at BBC Radio 1, the Smiths began to acquire a dedicated fan base. In February 1984 they released their debut album, The Smiths, which reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.

As frontman of the Smiths, Morrissey—described as "lanky, soft-spoken, bequiffed and bespectacled"—subverted many of the norms that were associated with pop and rock music. The band's aesthetic simplicity was a reaction to the excess personified by the New Romantics, and while Morrissey adopted an androgynous appearance like the New Romantics or earlier glam rockers, his was far more subtle and understated. According to one commentator, "he was bookish; he wore NHS spectacles and a hearing aid on stage; he was celibate. Worst of all, he was sincere", with his music being "so intoxicatingly melancholic, so dangerously thoughtful, so seductively funny that it lured its listeners ... into a relationship with him and his music instead of the world." In an academic paper on the band, Julian Stringer characterised the Smiths as "one of Britain's most overtly political groups", while in his study of their work, Andrew Warns termed them "this most anti-capitalist of bands". Morrissey had been particularly vocal in his criticism of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; after the October 1984 Brighton hotel bombing, he commented that "the only sorrow" of it was "that Thatcher escaped unscathed". In 1988, he stated that Section 28 "embodies Thatcher's very nature and her quite natural hatred".

The Smiths' growing success: 1984–1987

The Smiths brought realism to their romance, and tempered their angst with the lightest of touches. The times were personified in their frontman: rejecting all taints of rock n' roll machismo, he played up the social awkwardness of the misfit and the outsider, his gently haunting vocals whooping suddenly upward into a falsetto, clothed in outsize women's shirts, sporting National Health specs or a huge Johnny Ray-style hearing aid. This charming young man was, in the vernacular of the time, the very antithesis of a "rockist"—always knowingly closer to the gentle ironicist Alan Bennett, or self-lacerating diarist Kenneth Williams, than a licentious Mick Jagger or drugged-out Jim Morrison.

— Paul A. Woods, 2007.

In 1984, the band released two non-album singles: "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (their first UK top-ten hit) and "William, It Was Really Nothing". The year ended with the compilation album Hatful of Hollow. This collected singles, B-sides and the versions of songs that had been recorded throughout the previous year for the Peel and Jensen shows. Early in 1985, the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder, which was their only studio album to top the UK charts. The single-only release "Shakespeare's Sister" reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart, though the only single taken from the album, "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", was less successful, barely making the top 50. "How Soon Is Now?" was originally a B-side of the 1984 single "William, It Was Really Nothing", and was subsequently featured on Hatful of Hollow and the American, Canadian, Australian and Warner UK editions of Meat Is Murder. Belatedly released as a single in the UK in 1985, "How Soon Is Now?" reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.

During 1985, the band undertook lengthy tours of the UK and the US while recording the next studio record, The Queen Is Dead. The album was released in June 1986, shortly after the single "Bigmouth Strikes Again". The record reached number 2 in the UK charts. However, all was not well within the band. A legal dispute with Rough Trade had delayed the album by almost seven months (it had been completed in November 1985), and Marr was beginning to feel the stress of the band's exhausting touring and recording schedule. Meanwhile, Rourke was fired in early 1986 for his use of heroin. Rourke was temporarily replaced on bass guitar by Craig Gannon, but he was reinstated after only a fortnight. Gannon stayed in the band, switching to rhythm guitar. This five-piece recorded the singles "Panic" and "Ask" (with Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals) which reached numbers 11 and 14 respectively on the UK Singles Chart, and toured the UK. After the tour ended in October 1986, Gannon left the band. The band had become frustrated with Rough Trade and sought a record deal with a major label, ultimately signing with EMI, which drew criticism from some of the band's fanbase.

In early 1987, the single "Shoplifters of the World Unite" was released and reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. It was followed by a second compilation album, The World Won't Listen, which reached number 2 in the charts—and the single "Sheila Take a Bow", the band's second (and last during the band's lifetime) UK top-10 hit. Despite their continued success, personal differences within the band—including the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr—saw them on the verge of breaking up. In July 1987, Marr left the band and auditions to find a replacement proved fruitless.

By the time that the band's fourth album Strangeways, Here We Come was released in September, the band had broken up. The breakdown in the relationship has been partly attributed to Morrissey's annoyance with Marr's work with other artists and to Marr's growing frustration with Morrissey's musical inflexibility. Morrissey attributed the band's break-up to the lack of a managerial figure—in a 1989 interview with then-teenage fan Tim Samuels. Strangeways peaked at number 2 in the UK, but was only a minor US hit, though it was more successful there than the band's previous albums.

Solo career

Early solo work: 1988–1991

Several months before the Smiths dissolved, Morrissey enlisted Stephen Street as his personal producer and new songwriting partner, with whom he could begin his solo career. By September 1987, he had begun work on his first solo album, Viva Hate, at Wool Hall Studios near Bath; it was recorded with the musicians Vini Reilly and Andrew Paresi. Rather than featuring pre-existing images of celebrities, as the Smiths' album and single covers had done, the cover sleeve of Viva Hate featured a photograph of Morrissey taken by Anton Corbijn. In February 1988, EMI released the first single from this album, "Suedehead", which reached number 5 on the British singles chart, a higher position than any Smiths' single had achieved. The second single from the album, "Everyday Is Like Sunday", was released in June and reached number 9. The album reached number 1 on the UK album charts. The album's final song, "Margaret on the Guillotine", featured descriptions of Thatcher being executed; in response, the Conservative Member of Parliament Geoffrey Dickens accused Morrissey of being involved in a terrorist network and police Special Branch conducted a search of his Manchester home.

Morrissey's first solo performance took place at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall in December 1988. The event attracted huge crowds, with NME journalist James Brown observing that "the excitement and atmosphere inside the hall was like nothing I have ever experienced at any public event". Following Viva Hate, Morrissey put out two new singles; "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" was about the Kray twins, gangsters who operated in London's East End, and reached number 6 on the UK singles chart. This was followed by "Interesting Drug", which reached number 9. After his songwriting partnership with Street ended and was replaced by Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer, he recorded "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", released as a single in November 1989; it reached number 18. Christian spokespeople and tabloid newspapers condemned the song, claiming that it promoted occultism, to which Morrissey responded that "the only contact I ever made with the dead was when I spoke to a journalist from The Sun."

Morrissey sold out The Forum in Los Angeles in fifteen minutes

With Winstanley and Langer he began work on his first compilation album, Bona Drag, although only recorded six new songs for it, the rest of the album comprising his recent singles and B-sides. The album reached number 9 on the UK album chart. Two of the newly recorded Bona Drag tracks were released as singles: "November Spawned a Monster", a song about a wheelchair-bound woman, reached number 12 in the charts but received criticism from some who believed that it mocked the disabled. The second, "Piccadilly Palare", referenced London rent boys and featured terms from the polari gay slang. Released in November 1990, it reached number 19 in the charts. The song attracted some criticism from the British gay press, who were of the opinion that it was wrong for Morrissey to utilise polari when he was not openly gay; in an interview the previous year he had nevertheless acknowledged his attraction to both men and women.

Adopting Mark E. Nevin as his new songwriting partner, Morrissey created his second solo album, Kill Uncle; released in March 1991, it peaked at number 8 on the album chart. The two singles released in promotion of the album, "Our Frank" and "Sing Your Life", failed to break the Top 20 on the singles charts, reaching number 26 and 33 respectively. Another of the album's tracks, "Found, Found, Found", alluded to Morrissey's friendship with Michael Stipe, the lead singer of American indie rock band REM. Planning his first solo tour, Morrissey assembled several musicians with a background in rockabilly for his new backing group, including the guitarist Boz Boorer, Alain Whyte, and Spencer Cobrin. Morrissey began the Kill Uncle tour in Europe; he brought Phranc as his support act and decorated the stage of each performance with a large image of Edith Sitwell. On the US leg of his tour, he sold out Los Angeles' 18,000 seat The Forum in fifteen minutes, faster than Michael Jackson or Madonna had done. During the performance, David Bowie joined him onstage for a rendition of T. Rex's "Cosmic Dancer". In the US, he sold out 25 of his 26 other performances; one Texan appearance was filmed by Tim Broad for release as the VHS Live in Dallas. He proceeded to Japan—where he was frustrated by the authorities' tough stance toward fans—and then Australasia, where he cancelled several dates due to acute sinusitis.

The early 1990s were described by biographer David Bret as the "black phase" in Morrissey's relationship with the British music press, which was increasingly hostile and critical of him. In some cases, this involved the press spreading misinformation, such as the claim that he and Phranc were recording a cover of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"; others, such as those of Barbara Ellen in NME, were closer to personal attack than musical review. NME claimed that his cancelled performances reflected a disrespect towards his fans. He became increasingly reticent in talking to British music journalists, expressing frustration at how they constantly compared his solo work with that of the Smiths; "my past is almost denying me a future". He told one interviewer that the band he was then working with were technically better musicians than the Smiths had ever been.

Changing image: 1992–1995

The ones who listen to the entire song, the way I sing it, and my vocal expression know only too well that I'm no racist and glorifier of xenophobia. The phrase "England for the English" [used in the song] is in quotes, so those who call the song racist are not listening. The song tells of the sadness and regret that I feel for anyone joining such a movement [as the far-right National Front].

— Morrissey, on "The National Front Disco".

In July 1992, Morrissey released the album Your Arsenal, which peaked at number 2 in the album chart. It was the final release from producer Mick Ronson; Morrissey related that working with Ronson had been "the greatest privilege of my life". Your Arsenal reflected Morrissey's lament for what he regarded as the decline of British culture in the face of increasing Americanisation. He told one interviewer that "everything is informed by American culture—everyone under fifty speaks American—and that's sad. We once had a strong identity and now that's gone completely". A number of the tracks on the album, most notably "Certain People I Know" and "The National Front Disco", dealt with the lives and experiences of tough, working-class youths. Your Arsenal was critically well received, and often described as his best album since Viva Hate. The first single, "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful", had been released in April 1992 and peaked at number 17; this was followed by "You're the One for Me, Fatty", which reached number 19 and "Certain People I Know", which reached number 34. From September to December, Morrissey embarked on a 53-date Your Arsenal tour in which he varyingly decorated the stage with backdrops of skinhead girls, Diana Dors, Elvis Presley, and Charlie Richardson. One of the performances was recorded and released as Beethoven Was Deaf.

By the release of Your Arsenal, Morrissey's image had changed; according to Simpson, the singer had converted "from the aesthete interested in rough lads into a rough lad interested in aestheticism (and rough lads)". According to Woods, Morrissey developed an air of "quietly assured masculinity", representing "a more robust, burlier, beefier version of himself", while the poet and Morrissey fan Simon Armitage described the transition as being one from that of "stick-thin, knock-me-over-with-a-feather campness" to that of a "mobster and bare-knuckle boxer image". This new image was reflected in the cover art for Your Arsenal; a photograph taken by Sterling, it featured Morrissey onstage with his shirt open, displaying a muscular torso beneath.

The York Hall boxing venue, which Morrissey frequented in the mid-1990s

Various sources accused Morrissey of racism for making reference to the National Front, a far-right political party, in his song "The National Front Disco"; it has been argued that this criticism ignored the ironic context of the song, which pitied rather than glorified the party's supporters. According to Bret, these and other allegations of racism typically entailed decontextualising lyrics from Morrissey songs such as "Bengali in Platforms" and "Asian Rut". NME also accused Morrissey of racism on the basis of the imagery he employed during his 1992 performance at the Madstock festival in North London's Finsbury Park; Morrissey included images of skinhead girls as a backdrop and wrapped himself in a Union flag. Conversely, these actions resulted in him being booed offstage by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads in the audience, who believed that he was appropriating skinhead culture.

In mid-1993, Morrissey co-wrote his fifth album, Vauxhall and I, with Whyte and Boorer; it was produced by Steve Lillywhite. Morrissey described the album as "the best I've ever made", and at the time believed it would be either his final or penultimate work. It was both a critical and commercial success, topping the UK album chart. The album had been named for Vauxhall, a district of South West London famous for the Royal Vauxhall Tavern gay pub. One of the album's songs, "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get", was released as a single in March and reached number 8 in the UK. The single's sleeve featured images of Jake Walters, a skinhead in his twenties, who was living with Morrissey at the time. Walters had introduced Morrissey to York Hall, a boxing venue in Bethnal Green, part of London's East End, with the singer spending an increasing amount of time there. That year, he also released a non-album single, "Interlude", a duet with Siouxsie Sioux: the track was a cover of a Timi Yuro song. The record was published under the banner "Morrissey & Siouxsie"; due to record company issues, "Interlude" was only available on import outside Europe.

In the autumn of 1994, Morrissey recorded five songs at South London's Olympic Studios. In January 1995 the single "Boxers" was released, reaching number 23 on the singles chart. In February 1995, he embarked on the Boxers tour, supported by the band Marion and featuring a backdrop depiction of the boxer Cornelius Carr. One of these performances was filmed by James O'Brien and released as the VHS Introducing Morrissey. In December 1995, the song "Sunny" was released as a single; a lament for Morrissey's terminated relationship with Walters, the song was the first of Morrissey's singles not to chart. In 1995 the compilation album World of Morrissey was released, containing largely B-sides.

Move to Los Angeles: 1995–2003

After his contract with EMI expired, Morrissey signed to RCA. On this label he recorded his next album, Southpaw Grammar, at the Miraval Studios in southern France before releasing it in August 1995. Its cover art featured an image of the boxer Kenny Lane. It reached number 4 in the UK album charts, but made little impact compared to its two predecessors. In September 1995, Morrissey served as the support act for the European leg of Bowie's Outside Tour. Backstage at the Aberdeen gig, Morrissey was taken ill and taken to hospital; he did not return for the rest of the tour. Later referring to the tour critically, he stated that when you become involved with Bowie, "you have to worship at the Temple of David".

In December 1996, a legal case against Morrissey and Marr brought by Smiths' drummer Joyce arrived at the High Court. Joyce alleged that he had not received his fair share of recording and performance royalties from his time with the band, calling for at least £1 million in damages and 25% of all future Smiths album sales. After a seven-day hearing, the judge ruled in favour of Joyce. In summing up the case, Judge Justice Weeks referred to Morrissey as "devious, truculent and unreliable when his own interests were at stake", with the words "devious" and "truculent" being widely used in press coverage of the ruling. Marr paid the money legally owed to Joyce but Morrissey launched an appeal against the ruling. He claimed that the judge had been biased against him from the start of the proceedings because of his public criticisms of Thatcher and her government. Morrissey lost his appeal in July 1998, although he launched another soon after; this too was unsuccessful. In a November 2005 statement, Morrissey said that Joyce had cost him £600,000 in legal fees alone and approximately £1,515,000 in total.

Morrissey returned on Island Records in 1997, releasing the single "Alma Matters" in July, followed by his next album Maladjusted in August. The album peaked at number 8 in the UK album charts. Its further two singles, "Roy's Keen" and "Satan Rejected My Soul", both peaked outside the top 30 on the UK singles chart. Having been unhappy with the cover design for Southpaw Grammar, Morrissey left control of cover art of Maladjusted to his record company, but again was unsatisfied with the result.

Uncut reported in 1998 that Morrissey no longer had a record deal. The following year, he embarked on the "Oye Esteban Tour", and was one of the headliners of the Coachella Festival in California.

The England that I have loved, and I have sung about, and whose death I have sung about, I felt had finally slipped away. And so I was no longer saying, "England is dying." I was beginning to say, "Well, yes, it has died and here's the carcass"—so why hang around?

— Morrissey, on his move to Los Angeles.

Leaving Britain, Morrissey purchased a house in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles. It had formerly been the residence of Carole Lombard and had been re-designed by William Haines. Over the next few years he rarely returned to Britain. In 2002, Morrissey returned with a world tour, culminating in two sold-out nights at the Royal Albert Hall, during which he played as-yet unreleased songs. Outside the US and Europe, concerts also took place in Australia and Japan. During this time, Channel 4 filmed The Importance of Being Morrissey, a documentary which aired in 2003; it was Morrissey's first major screen interview to appear on British television. He told interviewers that he was working on an autobiography, and expressed criticism of reality television music shows like Pop Idol which were then in their infancy.

Comeback: 2004–2010

In 2003, Morrissey signed to Sanctuary Records, where he was given the defunct reggae label Attack Records to use for his next project. Produced by Jerry Finn and recorded in both Los Angeles and Berkshire, Morrissey's seventh solo album was You Are the Quarry; it was released in May 2004. The album's cover art featured an image of Morrissey carrying a machine gun. It peaked at number 2 on the UK album chart and number 11 on the U.S. Billboard album chart. The first single, "Irish Blood, English Heart", reached number 3 in the UK singles chart, the highest ranked single of his career. Promoting the album, he made appearances on both Top of the Pops and Later with Jools Holland, and gave his first television interview in 17 years on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross; Morrissey was visibly uncomfortable with Jonathan Ross' questions. He also agreed to interviews with various press outlets, including the NME, stating that "the nasty old guard" who controlled the magazine in the 1990s were gone and that it was not "the smelly NME any more".

Morrissey performing in 2006

To promote the album, Morrissey embarked on a world tour from April to November. He marked his 45th birthday with a concert at the Manchester Arena, supported by Franz Ferdinand; it was recorded for release as the DVD Who Put the M in Manchester?. Morrissey was also invited to curate that year's Meltdown festival at London's Southbank Centre. Among the acts he secured were Sparks, Loudon Wainwright III, Ennio Marchetto, Nancy Sinatra, The Cockney Rejects, Lypsinka, The Ordinary Boys, The Libertines, and playwright Alan Bennett. He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure appearances from Brigitte Bardot and Maya Angelou. That year he also performed at several UK music festivals, including Leeds, Reading, and Glastonbury.

Morrissey's eighth studio album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, was recorded in Rome and released in April 2006. It debuted at number 1 in the UK album charts and number 27 in the US. The album yielded four singles: "You Have Killed Me", "The Youngest Was the Most Loved", "In the Future When All's Well", and "I Just Want to See the Boy Happy". The album was produced by Tony Visconti; Morrissey called the album "the most beautiful—perhaps the most gentle—so far". Billboard described the album as showcasing "a thicker, more rock-driven sound".

Morrissey sued NME for libel over a 2007 article published by the outlet. In the article, NME criticised Morrissey after he allegedly told a reporter that British identity had disappeared because of immigration. He was quoted as saying: "It's very difficult [to return to England] because, although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. ... the gates of England are flooded. The country's been thrown away." His manager described the article as a "character assassination". In 2008 The Word apologised in court for a piece written by David Quantick, which commented on the 2007 NME article and suggested Morrissey was a racist. Morrissey accepted The Word's apology. The legal suit against NME began in October 2011 after Morrissey won a pre-trial hearing. Morrissey's case against NME editor Conor McNicholas and publisher IPC was due to have been heard in July 2012. In June 2012, the parties settled the dispute with NME issuing a public apology. Morrissey's lawyer said that "no money was sought as part of a settlement. ... The NME apology in itself is settlement enough and it closes the case."

Morrissey at SXSW in 2006

In December 2007, Morrissey signed a new deal with Decca Records, which included a Greatest Hits album and a new studio album. Greatest Hits charted at number 5 in the UK album chart. "That's How People Grow Up" was the first single from Greatest Hits, reaching number 14 in the UK charts. A second single from the album, "All You Need Is Me", followed in March.

His ninth studio album, Years of Refusal, originally due in September, was postponed until February 2009, as a result of the death of producer Jerry Finn, and the lack of an American label to distribute the album. Years of Refusal released by the Universal Music Group, reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and 11 in the US Billboard 200. The record was widely acclaimed by critics, with comparisons made to Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I. A review from Pitchfork Media noted that with Years of Refusal, Morrissey "has rediscovered himself, finding new potency in his familiar arsenal. Morrissey's rejuvenation is most obvious in the renewed strength of his vocals" and called it his "most venomous, score-settling album, and in a perverse way that makes it his most engaging". "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" and "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" were released as the record's singles. The song "Black Cloud" features the guitar playing of Jeff Beck. Throughout 2009, Morrissey toured to promote the album. As part of the extensive Tour of Refusal, Morrissey followed a lengthy US tour with concerts booked in Ireland, the UK, and Russia.

In October 2009, Swords, a B-sides collection of material released between 2004 and 2009, was released. It peaked at 55 on the UK albums chart, and Morrissey later called it "a meek disaster". On the second date of the UK tour to promote Swords, Morrissey collapsed onstage in Swindon, and was briefly hospitalised. Following the Swords tour, Morrissey had fulfilled his contractual obligation to Universal Records and was without a record company.

Further albums and literary work: 2010–present

In April 2011, EMI issued a new compilation, Very Best of Morrissey, for which the singer had chosen the track list and artwork. In March 2011, Morrissey took Ron Laffitte as his mananger. In June and July 2011, Morrissey played a UK tour; during his 2011 performance at Glastonbury Festival, Morrissey criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for attempting to prevent a ban on wild animals performing in circuses, calling him a "silly twit". This was followed by several dates elsewhere in Europe. Morrissey's 2012 tour started in South America and continued through Asia and North America. Morrissey played concerts in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Portugal, England, and Scotland. In late September, while visiting Strand Bookstore in Manhattan, he saved an elderly lady who had fainted beside him. Between January and March 2013, Morrissey toured 32 North American cities, beginning in Greenvale, New York and ending in Portland, Oregon. Patti Smith and her band were special guests at the Staples Center concert in Los Angeles, and Kristeen Young opened on all nights.

Morrissey during his performance at the Hop Farm Festival 2011

In January 2013, Morrissey was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer and several engagements were re-scheduled. On 7 March, Morrissey was hospitalised again, this time with pneumonia in both lungs. One week later, the rest of the tour was cancelled. During his rehabilitation he spent time in Ireland, where he watched the country's football team play a match against Austria in the company of his cousin Robbie Keane.

In April, EMI reissued the single "The Last of the Famous International Playboys", backed by three new songs: "People Are the Same Everywhere", "Action Is My Middle Name", and "The Kid's a Looker", all recorded live in 2011. Starting in June, Morrissey performed in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile. In August, Morrissey's concert at Hollywood High School on 2 March 2013, had a worldwide cinema release. 25Live marks Morrissey's 25th year as a solo artist, and was the first authorised live Morrissey DVD in nine years. In July, Morrisey cancelled the South American leg of his tour due to a "lack of funding", saying it was "the last of many final straws".

In October 2013, Morrissey's autobiography, titled Autobiography, was released after a "content dispute" had delayed it from the initial release date of 16 September 2013. The book's release caused controversy as it was published as a "contemporary classic" under the Penguin Classic label at Morrissey's request, which some critics felt devalued the Penguin Classics label. Morrissey had completed the 660-page book in 2011, before shopping it to publishers such as Penguin Books and Faber and Faber. The book opened to divergent reviews with The Daily Telegraph giving it a five-star review that described it as "the best written musical autobiography since Bob Dylan's Chronicles", while The Independent criticised the book's "droning narcissism" as well as its status as a Penguin Classic. The book entered the UK book charts at number 1 with nearly 35,000 copies being sold in its first week. In December, a 2011 live cover version of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love", was released as a single.

In January 2014, Morrissey signed a two-record deal with Capitol Music. His tenth studio album, World Peace Is None of Your Business, was released in July. Prior to its release, he embarked on a US tour in May, but was hospitalised in Boston in early June, cancelling the remaining nine tour dates. After finishing a six date tour in the UK, he did a US tour during June and July, including a concert in New York with special guest Blondie at Madison Square Garden. In July 2015, he publicly claimed that an airport security guard had groped him at San Francisco International Airport. He filed a sexual assault complaint; the Transport Security Administration found no supporting evidence to act on the allegation. In August, Capitol Music and Harvest Records ended their contracts with Morrissey. In October, he disclosed he had received treatment for Barrett's oesophageal cancer.

Morrissey performing at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2018

In September 2015 Penguin Books published Morrissey's first novel, List of the Lost.

In November 2017, his eleventh studio album, Low in High School, was released through BMG and Morrissey's own Etienne record label. That same month, Morrissey attracted press attention and criticism for comments made in an interview with Der Spiegel: he stated that it was "quite sad" that distinct national identities in Europe were being undermined by politicians trying "to introduce a multicultural aspect to everything", and that some individuals claiming victimhood as part of the Me Too movement were not genuine victims of sexual assault but were "simply disappointed." Morrissey accused Der Spiegel of misquoting him and said it would be his last print interview. He played two shows at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl in November. Morrissey's first UK tour since 2015 began in Aberdeen and concluded in London.

In November 2018, Morrissey released a cover of the Pretenders' "Back on the Chain Gang", performing it on The Late Late Show with James Corden. In May 2019, Morrissey played a seven-night residency at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in Broadway, prior to the release of his twelfth studio album, a covers album titled California Son.

In January 2020, Morrissey announced the release of an 11-track album I Am Not a Dog on a Chain for 20 March. The first single, "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?" sung with Motown soul artist Thelma Houston, was also made available on streaming sites.

Vocal and lyrical style

Lyrics

Mark Simpson characterised Morrissey as "the anti-pop idol", representing "the last, greatest and most gravely worrying product of an era when pop music was all there was". Music journalist and biographer Johnny Rogan stated that Morrissey's œuvre seems based on "endlessly re-examining a lost, painful past". Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home". According to Mark Simpson, there is a common feeling that his music's emphasis on the sadness of life is depressing.

Morrissey Live at SXSW Austin in March 2006

His lyrics are characterised by their usage of black humour, self-deprecation, and the pop vernacular. Many of his lyrics avoid mentioning the gender of the narrator, and thus provide both male and female listeners with multiple points of identification. Simpson felt that his lyrics often highlighted "the essential absurdity of gender". Discussing the Smiths' lyrics in 1992, Stringer highlighted that they placed great emphasis on the concept of Englishness, but added that unlike the contemporary Two-Tone and acid house movements, they focused on white England rather than exploring its multi-cultural counterpart. Although noting that during the 1980s emphasising white identity was a trait closely linked with right-wing politics, Stringer expressed the view that the Smiths represented "the only sustained response that white, English pop/rock music was able to make" against the Thatcher government's "appropriation of white, English national identity".

His lyrics have expressed disdain for many elements of British society, including the government, church, education system, royal family, meat-eating, money, gender, discos, fame, and relationships. In his lyrics for the Smiths, Morrissey avoided explicit descriptions of the consummation of sex; rather, he sings about the anticipation, frustration, aversion, or final disappointment with sex. Stringer suggested that this deliberate avoidance of sex was a reflection of the band's 'Englishness' because it invoked English cultures' "lack of emotional expression, the way in which feelings, and especially sexual feelings, cannot be expressed directly through casual touch, body contact and so on". Male homoerotic elements can be found in many of the Smiths' lyrics, however these also included sexualised descriptions featuring women.

Morrissey has described having "a macabre fascination" with violence. Simpson opined that Morrissey's lyrics "bleed and throb with violent imagery", citing the references to bus crashes and suicide pacts in "There is a Light that Never Goes Out", smashed teeth in "Bigmouth Strikes Again", and nuclear apocalypse in both "Ask" and "Everyday is Like Sunday". More broadly, Morrissey had a longstanding interest in thuggery, whether that be murderers, gangsters, rough trade, or skinheads.

Performance style

As a solo performer, Morrissey typically featured older imagery as his stage backdrop, as seen here at a 2011 performance in Berlin

Morrissey's vocals have been cited as having a particularly distinctive quality. Simpson believed that Morrissey's work embodied and personified that of the "Northern Women", speaking in styles of vernacular language that would be common to many women living in northern England. In this he was strongly influenced by the Northern singer Cilla Black, who had a successful career as a pop music singer in the 1960s, as well as Viv Nicholson, who similarly earned fame during that decade. Other female singers from that decade who have been cited as an influence on Morrissey have been the Scottish Lulu, and the Essexer Sandie Shaw. However, Stringer noted that rather than expressly singing in a Mancunian working-class accent, Morrissey adopted a "very clipped, precise enunciation" and sang in "clear English diction". He is also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto).

When performing onstage, he often whips his microphone cord about, particularly during his up-tempo tracks. Simpson believed that Morrissey often gave "slyly aggressive gestures" while onstage; he cited two instances from Top of the Pops, one in which Morrissey used hand gestures in order to pretend shooting at the audience during "Shoplifters of the World Unite" and another in which he turned his microphone cord into a hangman's noose while repeating the lyrics "Hang the DJ, hang the DJ" in the song "Panic". Rogan claimed that Morrissey exhibited "a power onstage which I have seldom seen from any other artiste of his generation", and that while performing he "oozes charisma, offering that peculiar combination of gauche vulnerability and athleticism".

On various occasions, Morrissey has expressed anger when he believes that bouncers and the security teams at his concerts have treated the audience poorly. For instance, at his San Antonio concert as part of the Your Arsenal tour he stopped his performance to rebuke bouncers for hitting fans.

Personal life

Throughout his career, Morrissey has retained an intensely private personal life. A longtime resident of Los Angeles, he also maintains homes in Italy, Switzerland, and the UK. In 2017, Los Angeles declared 10 November "Morrissey Day". Friends refer to him as "Morrissey", and he dislikes the nickname "Moz", telling one interviewer that "it's like something you'd squirt on the kitchen floor".

Stringer characterised Morrissey as a man with various contradictory traits, being "an ordinary, working-class 'anti-star' who nevertheless loves to hog the spotlight, a nice man who says the nastiest things about other people, a shy man who is also an outrageous narcissist". He further suggested that part of Morrissey's appeal was that he conveyed the image of a "cultivated English gentleman (and being every inch the typically English 'gent' he is perfectly representative of that type's loathing for cant and hypocrisy, and his fragile, quasi-gay sexuality)". Similarly, Morrissey biographer David Bret described him as being "quintessentially English", while Simpson termed him a Little Englander. During the 1980s, interviewer Paul Morley stated that Morrissey "sets out to be a decent man and he succeeds because that is what he is". Eddie Sanderson, who interviewed Morrissey for The Mail on Sunday in 1992, said that "underneath all the rock star flim-flam, Morrissey is actually a very nice chap, excellent company, perfectly willing and able to talk about any subject one cared to throw at him". Having photographed him in 2004, Mischa Richter described Morrissey as "genuinely lovely".

Morrissey is known for his criticism of the British music press, royalty, politicians and people who eat meat. According to Bret, his "withering attacks" on those he disliked are typically delivered in a "laid-back" manner. He is a lapsed Catholic and has criticised the Catholic Church. In 1991, he said that he believed in an afterlife. He is a cousin of Irish footballer Robbie Keane and once said, "To watch [Keane] on the pitch—pacing like a lion, as weightless as an astronaut, is pure therapy." He is also a fan of boxing. He has described suffering from clinical depression, for which he has pursued professional help.

Animal rights advocacy

A vocal advocate of animal welfare and animal rights issues, Morrissey has been a vegetarian since the age of 11. He has explained his vegetarianism by saying that "if you love animals, obviously it doesn't make sense to hurt them". Morrissey announced in 2015 that he is a vegan. He spoke of difficulties transitioning from vegetarianism to veganism. In a 2018 interview, Morrissey stated that he "refuse[s] to eat anything that had a mother" but has always had difficulties with food, stating that he only eats bread, potatoes, pasta, and nuts despite the increasing availability of more varied vegan food than ever before.

Morrissey is a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In recognition of his support, PETA honoured him with the Linda McCartney Memorial Award at their 25th Anniversary Gala on 10 September 2005. He appeared in a PETA advert in 2012, encouraging people to have their dogs and cats neutered to help reduce the number of homeless pets. In 2014, PETA worked with animator Anna Saunders to create a cartoon called Someday in honour of Morrissey's 55th birthday. It features his song "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" and highlights the journey of a young chick.

In January 2006, Morrissey attracted criticism when he stated that he accepts the motives behind the militant tactics of the Animal Rights Militia, saying, "I understand why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence—it is because they deal in violence themselves and it's the only language they understand." He has criticised people who are involved in the promotion of eating meat, including Jamie Oliver and Clarissa Dickson Wright. The latter had already been targeted by some animal rights activists for her stance on fox hunting. In response, Dickson Wright stated, "Morrissey is encouraging people to commit acts of violence and I am constantly aware that something might very well happen to me." Conservative MP David Davis criticised Morrissey's comments, saying that "any incitement to violence is obviously wrong in a civilised society and should be investigated by the police". Morrissey has also criticised the British royal family for their involvement in fox hunting.

In 2006, Morrissey refused to include Canada in his world tour that year and supported a boycott of Canadian goods in protest against the country's annual seal hunt, which he described as a "barbaric and cruel slaughter". In 2018, he changed his approach, feeling that his previous "stance was ultimately of no use and helped no one", and pledged to donate to animal protection groups in the cities where he would perform. He also invited those groups to set up stalls at his concerts.

During an interview with Simon Armitage in 2010, Morrissey said that "you can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies" due to their "horrific" treatment of animals. Armitage said: "He must have known it would make waves, he's not daft. But clearly, when it comes to animal rights and animal welfare, he's absolutely unshakable in his beliefs. In his view, if you treat an animal badly, you are less than human."

At a concert in Warsaw on 24 July 2011, Morrissey stated, "We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown, with 97 [sic] dead. Though that is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Shit every day." His comments, referencing the 2011 Norway attacks which resulted in the killing of 77 people, were described as crude and insensitive by NME. He later elaborated on his statement, saying, "If you quite rightly feel horrified at the Norway killings, then it surely naturally follows that you feel horror at the murder of ANY innocent being. You cannot ignore animal suffering simply because animals 'are not us'."

In February 2013, after much speculation, it was reported that the Staples Center had agreed for the first time ever to make every vendor in the arena completely vegetarian for Morrissey's performance on 1 March, contractually having all McDonald's vendors close down. In a press release, Morrissey stated, "I don't look upon it as a victory for me, but a victory for the animals." The request was previously denied to Paul McCartney. Despite these reports, the Staples Center retained some meat vendors while closing down McDonald's. Later in February, Morrissey cancelled an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after learning that the guests for that night also included the cast of Duck Dynasty, a reality show about a family who create duck calls for use in hunting. Morrissey referred to them as "animal serial killers".

In 2014, Morrissey stated that he believed there is "no difference between eating animals and paedophilia. They are both rape, violence, murder." In September 2015, he expressed his revulsion at the "Piggate" scandal, saying that if Prime Minister David Cameron had really inserted "a private part of his anatomy" into the mouth of a dead pig's severed head while at university, then it showed "a callousness and complete lack of empathy entirely unbefitting a man in his position, and he should resign". Also in September, he called Australian politician Greg Hunt's campaign to cull 2 million cats "idiocy", describing the cats as smaller versions of Cecil the lion.

Sexuality

Morrissey with his band after a 2018 performance at the London Palladium

Morrissey's sexuality has been the subject of much speculation and coverage in the British press during his career, with claims varyingly being made that he was celibate, a frustrated heterosexual, or bisexual. In a 1980 letter he described both himself and his girlfriend as bisexual, although adding that he "hate[d] sex". The Encyclopædia Britannica states that he created a "compellingly conflicted persona (loudly proclaimed celibacy offset by coy hints of closeted homosexuality)" which has "made him a peculiar heartthrob". Speculation was further fuelled by the frequent references to gay subculture and slang in his lyrics. In 2006 Liz Hoggard from The Independent said: "Only 15 years after homosexuality had been decriminalised, his lyrics flirted with every kind of gay subculture."

During his years with the Smiths, Morrissey professed to being celibate, which stood out at a time when much of pop music was dominated by visible sexuality. Marr said in a 1984 interview that Morrissey "doesn't participate in sex at the moment and hasn't done so for a while". Repeatedly, interviewers asked Morrissey if he was gay, which he denied. In response to one such inquiry in 1985, he stated that "I don't recognise such terms as heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and I think it's important that there's someone in pop music who's like that. These words do great damage, they confuse people and they make people feel unhappy, so I want to do away with them." As his career developed, there was increased pressure placed on him to come out of the closet, although he presented himself as a non-practising bisexual. In a 1989 interview, he revealed that he was "always attracted to men and women who were never attracted to me" and thus he did not have "relationships at all". In 2013 he released a statement which said, "Unfortunately, I am not homosexual. In technical fact, I am humasexual. I am attracted to humans. But, of course ... not many."

In 1997 he revealed that he had abandoned celibacy and that he had a relationship with a Cockney boxer. That person was revealed in his autobiography to be Jake Walters. Their relationship began in 1994 and they lived together until 1996. In a March 2013 interview, Walters said, "Morrissey and I have been friends for a long time, probably around 20 years." Morrissey was later attached to Tina Dehghani. He discussed having a child with Dehghani, with whom he described having an "uncluttered commitment". In his autobiography Morrissey also mentions a relationship with a younger Italian man, known only as "Gelato," with whom he sought to buy a house around 2006.

Political opinions

British politics

In an academic paper on the Smiths, Julian Stringer characterised the band as "one of Britain's most overtly political groups", while Andrew Warns termed them the "most anti-capitalist of bands". Simon Goddard described Morrissey as being "pro-working class, anti-elite and anti-institution. That includes all political parties, parliament itself, all public schools, Oxbridge, the Catholic church, the monarchy, the EU, the BBC, the broadsheet press and the music press. Because his comments are not consistent with any one political agenda it confuses people, especially on the left. If anything, he's a professional refusenik."

Morrissey has exhibited enduring anti-royalist views from his teenage years and has fiercely criticised the British monarchy. In a 1985 interview with Simon Garfield, he stated that he had always "despised royalty" and that royalist sentiment is a "false devotion". In a 2011 interview, he publicly identified as a republican, stating that he regarded the British royal family as "benefit scroungers and nothing else". In a 2012 interview with Stephen Colbert, he spoke out against the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, stating: "It was a celebration of what? 60 years of dictatorship. She's not [my Queen]. I'm not a subject."

Morrissey's first solo album, Viva Hate, included a track entitled "Margaret on the Guillotine", a jab at Margaret Thatcher. After her death in 2013, Morrissey called her "a terror without an atom of humanity" and said "every move she made was charged by negativity". He described Thatcher's successor, John Major, as "no one's idea of a Prime Minister ... a terrible human mistake". During the Iraq War, he described George W. Bush and Tony Blair as "insufferable, egotistical insane despots". In February 2006 Morrissey stated he had been interviewed by the FBI and by British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments. He said: "They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government ... it didn't take them long to realise that I'm not". In 2010 he endorsed Marr's statement that Prime Minister David Cameron was forbidden from liking the Smiths, criticising the Prime Minister's hobby of stag hunting. In response to the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017, Morrissey criticised Prime Minister Theresa May, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, and Elizabeth II for their statements regarding the bombing.

In 2013 Morrissey said that he "nearly voted" for the UK Independence Party, expressing his admiration for party leader Nigel Farage and endorsing Farage's Euroscepticism regarding UK membership of the European Union. In October 2016 he praised the UK's referendum on EU membership as "magnificent" and said the BBC had "persistently denigrated" supporters of the Leave campaign. The following October he expressed the view that the 2017 UKIP leadership election had been rigged against anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters; in April 2018 he endorsed Waters' new far-right party, For Britain, subsequently wearing a party badge during several performances in New York City in 2019. Morrissey's apparent support for For Britain saw adverts of his California Son album withdrawn from Merseyrail stations, and several record stores refusing to stock the album.

In June 2019 Morrissey rejected accusations of racism against him, saying, "The word is meaningless now. Everyone ultimately prefers their own race—does this make everyone racist?" In response to his recent political comments, fellow singer-songwriter Billy Bragg accused Morrissey of dragging the legacy of Johnny Marr and the Smiths "through the dirt". However, Nick Cave wrote an open letter defending Morrissey's right to freedom of speech to voice his beliefs, as well as arguing that his musical legacy should be kept separate from his political opinions.

American politics

At a Dublin concert in June 2004, Morrissey commented on the death of Ronald Reagan, saying that he would have preferred if George W. Bush had died instead. During a January 2008 concert, Morrissey remarked "God Bless Barack Obama" and criticised Hillary Clinton, naming her "Billary Clinton". However, in 2015 he accused Obama of not doing enough to tackle police brutality, stating he could not "see him doing anything at all for the black community except warning them that they must respect the security forces." He endorsed Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, although later criticised her as "the face and voice of pooled money" and praised Bernie Sanders as "sane and intelligent", accusing the US media of paying insufficient attention to his campaign. Morrissey denigrated Donald Trump as "Donald Thump" and accused him of not having any sympathy for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. When asked in a 2017 interview if he would push a button that would kill Trump if given the opportunity, he responded that he "would, for the safety of the human race." He later said the United States Secret Service questioned him over his comments on Trump.

Reception, legacy, and influence

David Bret has characterised him as an artist who divides opinion among those who love him and those who loathe him, with little space for compromise between the two. The press termed him the "Pope of Mope".

Fandom

Morrissey in 2006

Simpson stated that Morrissey had a global fan following that was unrivalled in its devotion to the singer, characterising this as "the kind of devotion that only dead stars command" normally. Morrissey's fans have been described as being among the most dedicated of pop and rock fans. Music magazine NME considers Morrissey to be "one of the most influential artists ever", while The Independent says, "Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status he has reached in his lifetime." According to Bret, Morrissey's fanbase "religiously followed his every pitfall and triumph". Simpson highlighted an example during the US leg of Morrissey's 1996 Maladjusted tour in which young men asked the singer to sign autograph their necks, which they subsequently had permanently tattooed into their skin. Rogan compared Morrissey to Wilde's character Dorian Gray "in reverse; while he slowly ages, his audience remains young". Rogan also noted that while onstage, Morrissey "revels in the messianic adoration" of his fans.

Soon after achieving national fame, Morrissey became a gay icon, with Bret noting that by the start of his solo career, Morrissey already had a "massive gay following". This development was influenced by the speculation around his own sexual orientation, his lyrics that dealt with such subjects as age-gap sex and rent boys, as well as the Smiths' heavy use of gay and camp imagery on their record covers. Morrissey's gay following was not restricted to Western countries, for he remained popular within the Japanese gay community as well.

The film 25 Live evidences a particularly strong following amongst the singer's Latino/Chicano fans. In various countries, fanzines were established devoted to him.

There are a number of Morrissey fansites. In the early 2000s Morrissey issued a "cease and desist" notification against the fan website Morrissey-Solo for publishing claims, never proven, that Morrissey had failed to pay members of his touring personnel. In 2011, he issued a lifetime concert ban against the site owner who, it was claimed, had caused "intentional distress to Morrissey and Morrissey's band" over a number of years. Another fansite, True-To-You, enjoys a close relationship with Morrissey and functioned as his official website for statements until May 2017. In April 2018, Morrissey launched his own website, Morrissey Central.

Influence

Bookish, reclusive-but-pugnacious—avowedly celibate—with an almost Puritan disdain for cheap glamour and armed with a deeply unhealthy interest in language, wit and ideas Morrissey succeeded in perverting pop music for a while and making it that most absurd of things, literary. Some were moved to talk of how much Morrissey owed that blousy Anglo-Irish nineteenth-century torch-singer and stand-up comedian Oscar Wilde, the "first pop star". Arguably, poor Oscar was merely an early failed and somewhat overweight prototype for Morrissey.

— Mark Simpson, 2004.

Morrissey is routinely referred to as an influential artist, both in his solo career and with the Smiths. The BBC has referred to him as "one of the most influential figures in the history of British pop", and NME named the Smiths the "most influential artist ever" in a 2002 poll, even topping the Beatles. Rolling Stone, naming him one of the greatest singers of all time in a 2014 poll, noted that his "rejection of convention" in his vocal style and lyrics is the reason "why he redefined the sound of British rock for the past quarter-century". Morrissey's enduring influence has been ascribed to his wit, the "infinite capacity for interpretation" in his lyrics, and his appeal to the "constant navel gazing, reflection, solipsism" of generations of "disenfranchised youth", offering unusually intimate "companionship" to broad demographics. Paul A. Woods described Morrissey as "Britain's unlikeliest rock 'n' roll star in several decades", noting that at the same time he was also "its most essential". Bret described him as "probably the most intellectually gifted and imaginative lyricist of his generation", listing him alongside Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Jacques Brel as being one of "the monstres sacrés".

Journalist Mark Simpson calls Morrissey "one of the greatest pop lyricists—and probably the greatest-ever lyricist of desire—that has ever moaned" and observes that "he is fully present in his songs as few other artists are, in a way that fans of most other performers ... wouldn't tolerate for a moment." Simpson also argues that "After Morrissey there could be no more pop stars. His was an impossible act to follow ... [his] unrivalled knowledge of the pop canon, his unequaled imagination of what it might mean to be a pop star, and his breathtakingly perverse ambition to turn it into great art, could only exhaust the form forever".

In 2006 Morrissey was voted the second greatest living British icon in a poll held by the BBC's Culture Show. The All Music Guide to Rock asserts that Morrissey's "lyrical preoccupations", particularly themes dealing with English identity, proved extremely influential on subsequent artists. Journalist Phillip Collins also described him as a major influence on modern music and "the best British lyricist in living memory". In 1998 he received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. In 2002, NME, by this point a critic of Morrissey, nevertheless considered him to be the "most influential artist ever". In 2004 Q gave him its best songwriter award.

Morrissey performing in 2011

In November 2008 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Morrissey as 92nd of "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time". The list was compiled from ballots cast by a panel of 179 "music experts", such as Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys and Bono, who were asked to name their 20 favourite vocalists.

Other scholars have responded favourably to Morrissey's work, including academic symposia at various universities including University of Limerick and Manchester Metropolitan University. Gavin Hopps, a research fellow and literary scholar at the University of St Andrews, wrote a full-length academic study of Morrissey's work, calling him comparable to Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman, and Philip Larkin, and noting similarities between Morrissey and Samuel Beckett.

The British Food Journal featured an article in 2008 that applied Morrissey's lyrics to building positive business relationships. A book of academic essays edited by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and Martin Power, Morrissey: Fandom, Representations and Identities, which focuses on Morrissey's solo career, was published in 2011.

He is regarded as an important innovator in the indie music scene; while in 2004, Pitchfork Media called him "one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last 20 years." A Los Angeles Times critic wrote that Morrissey "patented the template for modern indie rock" and that many bands playing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival "would not be there—or at least, would not sound the same—were it not for him". Similarly, the critic Steven Wells called Morrissey "the man who more or less invented indie" and an artist "who more than anybody else personifies" indie culture. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic writes that the Smiths and Morrissey "inspired every band of note" in the Britpop era, including Suede, Blur, Oasis, and Pulp. Other major artists including Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke have also been influenced by Morrissey.

Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, who recorded a 2005 EP of Morrissey covers titled Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey, acknowledged Morrissey's influence on his songwriting: "You could either bask in that glow of fatalistic narcissism, or you could think it was funny. I always thought that was an interesting dynamic in his songwriting, and I can only aspire to have that kind of dynamic in my songs". Brandon Flowers of the American rock band The Killers has revealed his admiration for Morrissey on several occasions and admits that his interest for writing songs about murder such as "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" and "Midnight Show" traces back to Morrissey singing about loving "the romance of crime" in the song "Sister I'm a Poet". Flowers was quoted as saying, "I studied that line a lot. And it's kind of embedded in me". Noel Gallagher called Morrissey "the best lyricist I've ever heard".

A 2017 biopic of Morrissey's early years, titled England Is Mine, was written and directed by Mark Gill and stars Jack Lowden. The film, which co-stars Jessica Brown Findlay, premiered at the closing gala of the Edinburgh Film Festival on 2 July 2017 and went into wide release in the UK and US in August 2017.

Awards and nominations

Brit Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1995	Himself	Best British Male	Nominated
2005			Nominated

GAFFA Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2004	Himself	Årets Udenlandske Sanger	Won

Grammy Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1993	Your Arsenal	Best Alternative Music Album	Nominated

Ivor Novello Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1998	Himself	Outstanding Contribution to British Music	Won

Lunas del Auditorio

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2007	Himself	Best Foreign Rock Artist	Nominated

MOJO Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2004	Himself	Icon Award	Won
2005		Inspiration Award	Nominated

Meteor Music Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2005	Himself	Best International Male	Won
2010			Nominated

NME Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1984	Himself	Best Songwriter	Won
1985			Won
		Best Dressed	Won
		Best Haircut	Won
		Best Male Singer	Won
1986			Won
		Most Wonderful Human Being	Won
1987			Won
		Best Male Singer	Won
		Safe Sex	Won
1988		Favourite NME Cover Of 1988	Won
		Most Wonderful Human Being	Won
		Best Solo Artist	Won
1989			Won
1990			Won
1991			Won
1992			Won
2005			Nominated
		Hero of the Year	Nominated
		Hottest Man	Nominated
2006	Morrissey: Who Put the M in Manchester	Best Music DVD	Nominated

PLUG Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2006	Morrissey: Who Put the M in Manchester	Best Music DVD of the Year	Nominated

Q Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1994	Himself	Q Songwriter Award	Won
2004	"Irish Blood, English Heart"	Best Track	Nominated

Rober Awards Music Poll

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2013	"Satellite of Love"	Best Cover Version	Nominated
2014	Himself	Comeback of the Year	Won

Personnel

Main article: List of Morrissey personnel

Current members

• Boz Boorer – guitar (1991–present)
• Jesse Tobias – guitar (2005–present)
• Matt Walker – drums (2007–present)
• Gustavo Manzur – keyboards (2012–present)
• Mando Lopez – bass guitar (2014–present)

Discography

The Smiths

Main article: The Smiths discography

• The Smiths (1984)
• Meat Is Murder (1985)
• The Queen Is Dead (1986)
• Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

Solo

Main article: Morrissey discography

• Viva Hate (1988)
• Kill Uncle (1991)
• Your Arsenal (1992)
• Vauxhall and I (1994)
• Southpaw Grammar (1995)
• Maladjusted (1997)
• You Are the Quarry (2004)
• Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006)
• Years of Refusal (2009)
• World Peace Is None of Your Business (2014)
• Low in High School (2017)
• California Son (2019)
• I Am Not a Dog on a Chain (2020)

Publications

Publications by Morrissey

• The New York Dolls. by Steven Patrick Morrissey.
  • Manchester: Babylon, 1981.
  • Reprint. Manchester: Babylon, 1995. ISBN 978-0-907188-50-6.
• James Dean Is Not Dead, Manchester: Babylon, 1983. ISBN 978-0-907188-06-3. By Steven Patrick Morrissey.
• Exit Smiling, Manchester: Babylon, 1998. ISBN 978-0-907188-47-6. Edition of 1000 copies. By Steven Patrick Morrissey.
• Morrissey (2013). Autobiography. London: Penguin Classic. ISBN 978-0-14-139481-7..
• List of the Lost. London: Penguin, 2015. ISBN 978-0-14-198296-0.

Publications with contributions by Morrissey

• Marc Bolan: Wilderness of the Mind. London: Xanadu, 1992. ISBN 978-1-85480-155-5. By John Willans and Caron Thomas. With an introduction by Morrissey. About Marc Bolan.
• Cockney Reject. John Black, 2005. ISBN 978-1-84454-881-1. By Jeff Turner and Gary Bushell. With a foreword by Morrissey. About Cockney Rejects.
• The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN 978-0-00-722945-1. By Tony Visconti. With a foreword by Morrissey.

References

General sources

Bannister, Matthew (2006). "'Loaded': Indie Guitar Rock, Canonism, White Masculinities". Popular Music. 25 (1): 77–95. doi:10.1017/s026114300500070x. JSTOR 3877544.

Bret, David (2004). Morrissey: Scandal and Passion. London: Robson Books. ISBN 978-1-86105-787-7.

Goddard, Simon (2006). The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life (revised ed.). London: Reynolds and Hearn. ISBN 978-1-905287-96-3.

Rogan, Johnny (1992). Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-1838-2.

Simpson, Mark (2004). Saint Morrissey. London: SAF Publishing. ISBN 0-946719-65-9.

Stringer, Julian (1992). "The Smiths: Repressed (But Remarkably Dressed)". Popular Music. 11 (1): 15–26. doi:10.1017/s0261143000004815. JSTOR 853224.

Warnes, Andrew (2008). "Black, White and Blue: The Racial Antagonism of the Smiths' Record Sleeve". Popular Music. 27 (1): 135–149. doi:10.1017/s0261143008001463. JSTOR 40212448.

Woods, Paul A. (2007). "Morrissey Needs No Introduction". Morrissey in Conversation: The Essential Interviews. Paul A. Woods (ed.). London: Plexus. pp. 5–8. ISBN 0-85965-394-3.

Further reading

• Brown, Len, Meetings with Morrissey, Omnibus, 2008.
• Campbell, Sean and Coulter, Colin, eds., Why Pamper Life's Complexities? Essays on The Smiths, Manchester University Press, 2010.
• Devereux, Eoin; Dillane, Aileen; and Power, Martin J., eds., Morrissey: Fandom, Representations and Identities, Intellect Books, 2011.
• Goddard, Simon, Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths, Ebury Press, 2009.
• Greco, Nicholas P., Only If You Are Really Interested: Celebrity, Gender, Desire, and the World of MORRISSEY, McFarland and Co., 2011.
• Hingley, Martin; Leek, Sheena; Lindgreen, Adam, "Business relationships the Morrissey way", British Food Journal, Vol. 110, No. 1, pp. 128–143, 2008. doi:10.1108/00070700810844821.
• Hopps, Gavin, Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart, Continuum, 2009.
• Rogan, Johnny, Morrissey, self-published, 2007.
• Rogan, Johnny, Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance, Omnibus, 1993.
• Sterling, Linder, "We Are Your Thoughts", Linda Works: 1976–2006, JRP Editions, 2006.
• Sørensen, Jesper, Alle dage er som søndag, Rosenkilde, 2009.
• Woronzoff, Elizabeth, "'Because the Music That They Constantly Play, It Says Nothing to Me About My Life:' An Analysis of Youth's Appropriation of Morrissey's Sexuality, Gender, and Identity", monograph, Simmons College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Studies, February 2009.

External links

• Official The Smiths website
• Morrissey on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs