Johnny Marr interview: ‘I had to defend myself against Morrissey’ - thetimes.co.uk

Johnny Marr interview - The Times

Johnny Marr tells his side.

Johnny Marr interview: ‘I had to defend myself against Morrissey’

Fight or flight? Since Johnny Marr walked out on the Smiths in 1987 he has chosen the latter. He collaborated with countless artists, from the Pretenders to Mod

www.thetimes.co.uk

Excerpt:

A month on the guitarist explains his decision to come out fighting. “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” — he curls his lip — “with ridicule.” Tellingly, he doesn’t use the M word.

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Related items:

• Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey's open letter via Twitter (January 26, 2022)
• Morrissey Central: "OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR." (January 25, 2022)

 

[F*ck j. Marr]

You are a liar. This is the line for Johnny's signing yesterday, with some people waiting for over two hours.

Sure, the same people that buy (maybe) the tickets for a lame show.

BUT if M were signing too, there would be people on the queue from the day before and a way more lads. Way more.

The Little john Needs a label to get promoted and get the people there. I know someone else who doesn't need a label or a new album to play sold out shows around the world, as done before. Any clue?: The "abuser" one on the smiths

 

[Skylarker]

Pretty sure there was a photo the other day of Miley Cyrus literally next to Morrissey....

Is Morrissey working with Miley? No.

 

[Deleted member 30524]

Is Morrissey working with Miley? No.

No.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Nice, you're going to let a journalist's vendetta against Morrissey affect your opinions on an artist you've idolized.

Read Marr's words, not the writer's. Marr doesn't have say over what gets written, ask Moz about that.

I take it that the anon and others have read Marr’s words, and that’s why they are taking issue.

if Marr agrees to the interview, then he agrees to what he says being printed.

This is really interesting, did any of you read this? This was written without any input from anyone Not a single Marr syllable, the writer sets the scene by saying..
Sitting in his manager’s HQ in north London, Marr is clearly conscious that discussing Morrissey risks adding fuel to the fire. This is his first interview since their very public spat last month, and when the subject comes up Marr’s normally sunny demeanour changes; his expression is less amiable interlocutor and more jut-jawed pugilist.

not in that part. But Marr’s comments about Morrissey are quoted later in the article.

So then what? It reads to me like nothing happened after this. Marr ignores all questions with Morrisey in them? or he says o f*** off? or what? because there's no questions, answers, comments here, of any kind, not one, Just the authors accounts of the events prior. read between the lines people..Before you start throwing rocks.

Maybe I’m not reading between the lines of your post. But Marr says plenty and enough, and it is what people are taking issue with.


Many a syllable from Marr in this article.....


A month on the guitarist explains his decision to come out fighting.

“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” — he curls his lip — “with ridicule.” Tellingly, he doesn’t use the M word.

The brouhaha coincides with the release of Marr’s new (double) album, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 — his fourth as a solo artist, and comfortably his best.

“Look, it was about [his wanting] attention,” Marr continues, “and I’m getting a lot of it. I’ve got my new record coming out, and that’s getting attention too. All my solo records have. I just do what I do. I’ll just carry on being who I am.”

 

[Anonymous]

The idea that it was deigned to be insulting is so wrong. That isn't how it reads at all. Johnny needs to calm down and read it again.

Well, he did accuse Johnny's grandma of having dribble on her chin. And people are still struggling to find exactly what Johnny said that was so insulting to Moz that he decided to have a public hissy fit in the first place.

 

[Anonymous]

The actual 'journalism' (if you can call it that) in this article, is far more offensive than any direct quotes from Marr. I'm not even sure what the writer trying to use 'humasexual' as an insult is about - unless it's some reference to 'devious and truculent' Moz refusing to come out of the closet?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, he did accuse Johnny's grandma of having dribble on her chin. And people are still struggling to find exactly what Johnny said that was so insulting to Moz that he decided to have a public hissy fit in the first place.

People like you, you mean. Marr's snide little digs are perfectly evident in every interview he does.

 

[Surface]

Sure, the same people that buy (maybe) the tickets for a lame show.

BUT if M were signing too, there would be people on the queue from the day before and a way more lads. Way more.

The Little john Needs a label to get promoted and get the people there. I know someone else who doesn't need a label or a new album to play sold out shows around the world, as done before. Any clue?: The "abuser" one on the smiths

Not sure that M would turn up to sign a Marr album.

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure that M would turn up to sign a Marr album.

Why not? He could sell signed copies of Marr's album at his merch stall, along with the signed Bowie, New York Dolls etc records that he's been flogging. King of Merch!

 

[Moz Fan]

Yet again a whole interview ends up being about Morrissey. By reading through it the idea that lingers is not that of a new JM album and its songs, but rather about his non-relationship with Morrissey, pictured as the "bad guy".

Whenever Johnny says that he and M are different, he might think that it is to his advantage, but he is totally wrong because he assumes we don't know where their differences really lie. We actually do:

Morrissey is a profound and complex human being and amazing artist;

Johnny Marr is a good musician.

 

[Vegan Cro Spirit .777]

Why not? He could sell signed copies of Marr's album at his merch stall, along with the signed Bowie, New York Dolls etc records that he's been flogging. King of Merch!

most go buy to try to later sell on ebay and discogs but will be surprised when a item not signed by LeTwat fetches slightly more than one signed. neither will see a flood in demand thats for sure.

a LePepe sucy album signed by Moz would fetch a mint, a Moz
album signed by the Pep would decimate its value it is what it is.

if it werent sunday id think you were going back and forth with your other self but be that as it may, tomorrow will bring more LePep podcast pap interviews about Moz.

 

[Amy]

Yet again a whole interview ends up being about Morrissey. By reading through it the idea that lingers is not that of a new JM album and its songs, but rather about his non-relationship with Morrissey, pictured as the "bad guy".

When Morrissey felt that Johnny was being pushed around, used & abused in the music industry, he wrote this - basically saying "I love you & I'll be here for you no matter what."



When Morrissey was being crucified by practically everyone & asked JM to stop helping them, Johnny just says "This fake news thing is very 2021...". That's the difference between them - Johnny doesn't give a shit. It's grim.

 

[ACTON]

Is it a rule for journalists who are interviewing Johnny these days to mention how black his hair is? It's really odd.

It's like when Gary Numan was on BBC Breakfast TV to publicise his excellent Intruder album and talked about how every song was from the viewpoint of the ravaged earth finally standing up against the black heart of man. After the interview dumb commentators ravaged him over the blackness of his hair/hair piece. The human race is at least 75% bubonic braindead bovines.

 

[fastpulseboy]

Johnny, please grow up, you sickening twat. So f***ing childish.

 

[The Irish Hare]

Johnny Marr interview - The Times

Johnny Marr tells his side.

Johnny Marr interview: ‘I had to defend myself against Morrissey’

Fight or flight? Since Johnny Marr walked out on the Smiths in 1987 he has chosen the latter. He collaborated with countless artists, from the Pretenders to Mod

www.thetimes.co.uk

Excerpt:

A month on the guitarist explains his decision to come out fighting. “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” — he curls his lip — “with ridicule.” Tellingly, he doesn’t use the M word.

---

Related items:

• Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey's open letter via Twitter (January 26, 2022)
• Morrissey Central: "OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR." (January 25, 2022)

Mainstream journalism died a death over the past two years in particular. It does not serve to find any truth but rather to further its own or its paymasters agenda. This article is unbelievably offensive and even if Johnny Marr has no control over the final print, he and his article of a son know how to use social media. He could easily set any wrongs right, but he hasn't.
He has really gone down in my estimation and has done himself no favours, doing whatever it takes to sell a record. There's no such thing as bad publicity, but I think Morrissey comes out of this the bigger and better man.

 

[The Irish Hare]

You are a liar. This is the line for Johnny's signing yesterday, with some people waiting for over two hours.

The queue was for the free booster shot with each album bought, though some of the shocking side effects were bottle-black hair and kohl- pencilled eyebrows

 

[Lord P]

When Morrissey felt that Johnny was being pushed around, used & abused in the music industry, he wrote this - basically saying "I love you & I'll be here for you no matter what."



When Morrissey was being crucified by practically everyone & asked JM to stop helping them, Johnny just says "This fake news thing is very 2021...". That's the difference between them - Johnny doesn't give a shit. It's grim.

You know as well as anyone that Morrissey brought everything on himself. Why should Johnny care about that, he’s clearly sick of Moz as are many Smiths fans.

 

[Vegan Cro Spirit .777]

Johnny, please grow up, you sickening twat. So f***ing childish.

im afraid he is going backwards in age
he wears one outfit in the morning and one
in the afternoon and one at night time. by the
time hes 90 hell be a complete teenager again.

its incredible that he pencils his eyebrows before
going out in public.
and high lites in the wig
he got issues with his personality thats
for sure.
and talking that it HIS choice not to
be on X Factor when hed get gonged while
out in the parking lot

yes a great leader of twats, the

 

[Mayfly]

This article reads like a beauty and the beast story. It is truly sad that the promotion of a new JM album through interviews is turning into vicious attacks against Morrissey, mainly instigated by the journalist but JM does nothing to discourage it.

When Marr mentioned (Morrissey’s) attention seeking, it somehow brought back the memory of a time around the end of The Smiths when JM thought that Morrissey had deliberately spread the word of the breuk-up, when that wasn’t the case and JM later had to admit that. It feels like the same deep degree of mistrust and hostility on the part of JM towards Morrissey.

The other striking thing for me was the last paragrap, where the journalist describes JM’s personality as a charming exterior with a steely interior, and heralds it as a great thing. I would be a little more nuanced her. Of course, JM had every determination tocontinue to thrive in the music industry and there’s nothing wrong with that imo. Morrissey had that same ambition and displays the same steeliness, but in his case it is bad because he is truculant and devions. However, the way the article is written, that paragraph can also be read as JM being a man with a vengeance, seeking to finally claim the crown of The Smiths for him alone.

 

[Moz Fan]

When Morrissey felt that Johnny was being pushed around, used & abused in the music industry, he wrote this - basically saying "I love you & I'll be here for you no matter what."



When Morrissey was being crucified by practically everyone & asked JM to stop helping them, Johnny just says "This fake news thing is very 2021...". That's the difference between them - Johnny doesn't give a shit. It's grim.

To me it is more than that. JM's behaviour regarding Morrissey has been typical of a rival/enemy. At the bottom of it I sense envy, competition and use of the bad press Morrissey gets as a tool to enhance what he believes to be his personal "outstanding qualities". It's wicked.