Is this man ever going to stop talking about The Smiths? Or stop blaming everything on Morrissey for two seconds?
Did you ever consider that maybe he blames everything on Morrissey because *gasp* it just might have been Morrissey's fault that the band broke up and still have not reformed? Three of four Smiths seem to see it that way...but what do they know, right? They were just in the band and you, well, you have read Morrissey's interviews.
Now what would be REALLY interesting would be if Morrissey could stop blaming poor marketing and music industry politics for his waning sales and chart positions for albums, singles, and re-releases...oh, and his re-re-releases too...and instead realize there is no one to blame but himself for the quality of music, or rather the lack of quality, that he's been releasing and his lack of a record contract.
Do you hear Johnny Marr bitching about the failure of 'Boomslang'? Do you hear Johnny Marr bitching about the lack of a label for his new album? No. If anything, Marr is more of a serious "artist" than Morrissey could ever be. Marr records songs whether he has a contract to or not and he will release his new album without holding out for a check from a major label. Marr is willing to collaborate with other artists/bands as opposed to sitting around and doing nothing, while Morrissey just goes and charges $100 a ticket for the same show every night around the world to support his living out of hotel rooms. Morrissey doesn't care about the "art", he cares about the money, the praise and the blind adoration.
Johnny Marr, as much if not more so than anyone else, encouraged "bitterness" between the band members post-split by spending most of the 1990s telling anyone in earshot what a sad, pathetic whiny old sack Morrissey was, what a nightmare he was to work with and how Bernard Sumner or Matt Johnson or someone equally mediocre was a better singer/writer/God knows what else. He burnt his bridges long ago; he continues to burn them with every cryptic wink and nod about 'The Big Bad Wolf' of The Smiths story, and I'm amazed that Morrissey still gives him the time of day. You bit the hand that fed and now you're paying for it, Johnny. Does he seriously wonder why Moz doesn't turn up at his door with wine and chocolates?
And this has what to do with Joyce and Rourke? Yeah, Johnny talking shit made them bitter and want to sue Morrissey. Too bad they were already suing him a year after the break-up of the Smiths. The bitterness has always been with Morrissey. Morrissey didn't like Marr working with other artists. Boo hoo. Morrissey didn't like Marr leaving the band after he exhausted him mentally by having him manage the band almost exclusively because Morrissey couldn't keep himself from firing another manager. Boo hoo. Morrissey doesn't want to pay his bandmates their share for performance royalties because they weren't his co-writer and not seen as equals. Boo hoo. Morrissey is treated like any other sod when the courts go after his assets when he refuses to pay the judgment against him. Boo hoo. Morrissey has to be one of the biggest crybabies in all of music. If anything, fans are lucky Marr cleaned up Morrissey's messes and wiped his ass for as long as he did.
But do you think he has nothing else to talk about? Or that no-one would want to read it if it didn't mention The Smiths? I'd be willing to skim over anything involving Johnny Marr because I'm a fan, and I always have that hope that he might say something new or at least slightly different from things he's said a thousand times before. He's nowhere near as one-dimensional as these endless Smiths interviews make him out to be, but you'd never know it.
Yeah, like Morrissey hasn't done the same crap for the last 25 years. He keeps saying the exact same thing in different ways, and people eat it up like it's profound. The same goes for his music as well. At least Marr isn't a dick about things like Morrissey is and has an assistant tell the journalist what is and isn't allowed by penalty of walking out of the interview.
It would be like Morrissey being endlessly questioned about celibacy and homosexuality
He was until it was fairly obvious that he was gay and having gay sex.
I might weasel out his opinion on 'Vauxhall & I'
Why would you think Marr would give a damn to listen to a Morrissey album?
make him list his favourite vegan cheeses in descending order of preference.
Someone get Amy a job at Rolling Stone immediately!
In other words, I'd ask ANYTHING other than Smiths questions. The minute he mentioned the first thing about Salford Van Hire and roadies on the phone and it all being a lot of pressure for a 23 year-old, I'd be out of there.
No you wouldn't. Fact.