Few were surprised when Morrissey soon pulled out of the tour (citing "illness"), but accusations that Morrissey found the experience of supporting Bowie too humiliating were cruelly wide of the mark.
"He was very ill with depression," says Jo Slee. "He wasn't really fit to go on the road, although I didn't know how ill he was until he really began to come apart at the seams."
Jo won't say what Mozzer was depressed about.
"I really couldn't say," she insists. "Morrissey's suffered from depression all his life, more than anyone else I know. It's about repressed feelings, repressed emotions, repressed pain. It needs treatment. He was taking anti-depressants at the time because he was desperate to get out on the road, he really wanted to do the dates. But it was just too much for him."