Morrissey to Johnny Marr: “Stop Using My Name As Click-Bait”

January 27, 2022 10:45 am

Former bandmates are feuding again.

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In an open letter addressed to guitarist Johnny Marr, his former bandmate, Morrissey asked the six-string player to “stop using my name as click-bait.” Morrissey also added that the two have not “known each other for 35 years” and that Marr should “move on.”

Morrissey and Marr previously played together in the popular British band The Smiths, before the group broke up in 1987 after disagreements.

Marr fired back on Twitter, saying, “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 ? #makingindiegreatagain“

https://twitter.com/Johnny_Marr/status/1486269940739244038

In the letter, Morrissey said his former guitarist should concentrate on his “own unstoppable solo achievements” and “please just leave me out of it.”

Morrissey added, they “both helped each other become whatever it is we are today.” And that Marr no longer knows “nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings” and noted, “We haven’t known each other for 35 years—which is many lifetimes ago.”

The singer concluded, “Just stop using my name as click-bait.”

Marr has been in the press lately after announcing a new double-album, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. It is set for release on February 25, 2022.

“There’s a set of influences and a very broad sound that I’ve been developing—really since getting out of The Smiths until now, and I hear it in this record,” Marr said in a statement. “There are so many strands of music in it. We didn’t do that consciously, but I think I’ve got a vocabulary of sound. And I feel very satisfied that I’ve been able to harness it.”

The release, which is Marr’s fourth solo album, will include 16 tracks. His last release was in 2018, Call The Comet. Last month, Marr released his latest single, “Spirit, Power and Soul,” which will appear on his new double LP.

Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 Track Listing

1. Spirit Power & Soul

2. Receiver

3. All These Days

4. Ariel

5. Lightning People

6. Hideaway Girl

7. Sensory Street

8. Tenement Time

9. The Speed of Love

10. Night and Day

11. Counter-Clock World