Morrissey was always a jerk

[marmar]

Morrissey was always a jerk
Despite a new album and an unswayable fan base, Morrissey wants nothing more than to validate his victimhood

By Andi Zeisler
Senior Writer
Published March 7, 2026 1:30PM (EST)


(Salon) At his recent show at London’s O2 arena, Morrissey did the thing.

By “the thing,” I don’t mean that he wore a shirt unbuttoned almost to the waist and stuffed a small floral arrangement into his pants, though he did do that. No, the thing Morrissey did was complain — into a microphone, from an enormous stage, to a sold-out crowd — about how unfair it is that he has been silenced. “The fact that I’m on this stage is an incredible accomplishment in itself,” he said. “Because, as you know, the jealous bit*hes tried to get rid of me.”

....(snip)....

2026 is, on paper, a big year for Morrissey. “Make-Up Is a Lie,” his 14th solo album, dropped on Friday; his tour in support of it, despite a predictable flurry of cancelled shows, is underway; and it’s the 40th anniversary of The Smiths’ breakthrough album, “The Queen Is Dead.” But as his lament to the O2 arena’s sold-out crowd made clear, it’s simply another year in which Moz will revel in victimhood and rail against his legion of music-business enemies: The thought-police punters, the overwoke music press and a record industry so united in thwarting his genius that simply being onstage is an accomplishment.

“Being a former Morrissey fan is like being trapped in an abusive relationship with your first great love. No matter what he does or says, you somehow dust yourself down and immediately hark back to the bliss of early discovery,” wrote Kevin Maher in a recent Times of London essay. Within the piece itself, Maher makes it clear that the only way to tell the difference between a former Morrissey fan and a current Morrissey fan is to be caught in the act of a jangly reverie that slingshots us back to simpler days, when Steven Patrick Morrissey was the wordy, literate, excruciatingly sincere Pope of Mope.

We all know better, of course. “Never meet your heroes” isn’t the shibboleth of Morrissey fans, since the 66-year-old singer is known for unfailing kindness to fans. The warning is more along the lines of “Never read your hero’s political opinions, but also good luck trying to avoid hearing about them.” ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/07/morrissey-was-always-a-jerk/

[underpants]

1. Meanwhile Johnny Marr has reaching Brit rockstar status surpassing many of the old stars

Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2026, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)

The comparison to Morissey to the horrible Clapton and Van Morrison is spot on.

I knew of The Smiths when Meat is Zmurder came out. “How soon is now” is an incredible creation but mostly due to Marr, Rourke, and Joyce. I mostly thought his song titles were funny. Clever wordsmith in songs. I don’t get lyrics very much so his “Pope of Mope” (very funny nickname) stuff just washed over me. As a fan of REM, I always saw Stipe Morrissey and Bono as the singers of the same high school class. U2 went directly into mainstream and rock star status and Bono was more preachy (they are really a Christian rock band). I heard Smiths stuff here and there and just Morrissey to be a drama queen. Stipe was an instrument in his band. Yes they went more political but it usually wasn’t direct. Like any REM singer, it can change every time you listen to it.

The brother of a friend went to a Morrissey show in SF a few years ago and his NO MEAT demands of the venue fit perfectly into the first picture I got of Morrissey.

[David__77]

2. Insufferable

His evolution isn’t all that surprising. At the same time, I can understand that a lot of people took comfort (or something like that) from his music.