He complained about the same things he is complaining about today, but today he gets shit for it.
SPIN: Why do you think that is? I mean, they must be projecting something onto you.
Morrissey: Well, apart from the actual records and what they convey, I think that there is a great sense that I have been always overlooked. I think that the audience is perfectly aware of this and they feel that I have been enormously shortchanged.
SPIN: By whom?
Morrissey: By the entire music industry and all of their relatives! [Laughs] I’ve been dumped into the “out” tray.
SPIN: Oh, come on. You’re sitting here in this amazing hotel suite.
Morrissey: Yes, and I always have sat in hotels like this, but it’s never been documented and I don’t know why. Last year, for instance, I sold out Madison Square Garden. There was no publicity before the concert, no publicity after the concert, and I thought, “I wonder if many artists in the history of the entire world have ever sold out this venue with no publicity.” The L.A. Forum, too. My experience, my career, if you like, is littered with items like that, and it never, ever gets documented. I wonder why certain people are deliberately neglected. Is it a form of censorship?
SPIN: No, it’s just a form of whether you want to play the game or not.
Morrissey: But that isn’t really fair. If you achieve, you should be recognized in some way.
SPIN: Yes, but you aren’t seen, in the way that George Michael is, with Linda Evangelista at video shoots, or at all those artfully managed arrivals at airports, and that’s the deal, isn’t it?
Morrissey: Yes it is, but the question in my mind is, which scenario is more real and more natural? I think mine is and it always has been. Everything I’ve achieved, I’ve earned, and nobody has handed it to me, and that kind of existence is hard to understand for the music industry. They don’t understand the language of being your own person. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change it. But I just feel anger, because when you repeatedly do things against what seems like all the odds there comes a time when the size of your audience should be recognized and you should be treated accordingly.
SPIN: What form would the attention take?
Morrissey: Well, it would have been nice to have read somewhere, throughout the world, “Morrissey has sold out Madison Square Garden,” and there were no posters and there were no reviews. That would have been nice, but to my knowledge, I’ve never seen anything that pertained to that particular night in history.
SPIN: But this year’s tour is going to be that sort of arena on a regular basis, which is kind of hard to miss.
Morrissey: One hopes. I’m going to wear very bright shirts! For the first time it seems as though it’s completely focused. Not just in my way, but in the way of Sire Records, and that’s what makes it quite fascinating to me, because I’ve never been in that situation before. I’ve always been plowing uphill, and achieving nonetheless, but never feeling the weight of anything at all behind me other than self-determination.