Johnny Marr says there’s “zero” chance of him working with Morrissey
It comes after Morrissey openly criticised Marr in a letter shared to his website
Johnny Marr has shot down the idea of working with Morrissey again in the future, saying there is “zero” chance of recollection.
The former Smiths bandmates have been locked in a war of words in recent weeks, after Morrissey posted a statement asking Marr to stop talking about him in interviews.
In a post on his Morrrissey Central website, he wrote: “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?”
He added: “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.
On Twitter, Marr responded: “Dear @officialmoz. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah?”
Now, in a new interview with BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright (via Stereogum), Marr was asked whether the pair would ever bury the hatchet and work together in the future. The guitarist then responded that there is “zero” chance of that happening, on a personal or professional level, adding that the last time the pair properly spoke was “18 or maybe 15” years ago.
Marr also referenced the feud in a new interview with The Times saying: “When you’re attacked out of the blue, particularly in public, you have to defend yourself. The letter was designed to be insulting, wasn’t it? That has to have been the idea. If it’s something that’s not based in fact, you have to react in kind, which is just with ridicule.”
The two, who were bandmates in The Smiths for six years, released four albums together: ‘The Smiths’ (1984), ‘Meat Is Murder’ (1985), ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (1986), and ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’ (1987).
Marr is due to tour with Blondie this April and May in the UK.