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The seemingly endless war of words between Morrissey and his former friend and The Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr has resumed once more.
The latest eruption concerns the imminent broadcast of a new eight-part BBC 6Music podcast series, The Rise and Fall of the Smiths, presented by Steve Lamacq and Elizabeth Alker, which will air from July 13.
A synopsis for the series on the BBC website reads: "The series draws on archive BBC interviews with band members Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, as well as Factory Records co-founder Tony Wilson, producers Stephen Street and Grant Showbiz, Jo Slee and Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and The Smiths’ manager Joe Moss. It explores how The Smiths created a foundational blueprint for modern indie rock and Britpop in five years, and how their unparalleled, meteoric rise led to an acrimonious, bitter fallout."
In a (since-deleted) post on his Morrissey Central website titled 'THE ART OF FORGERY', Morrissey says that he was not invited to participate in the series, and that he believes it will cast him in an unfavourable light.
He also takes aim at Johnny Marr, saying, "Marr has intentionally divided the Smiths audience into Marr or Morrissey factions; he has legally claimed the Smiths trade mark name as his - knowing full well that the name was devised by Morrissey.
"He has devoted his entire life to killing Morrissey in whatever way available. He embodies precisely what he claims to hate in others. His predatory sport of ‘calling Morrissey names’ is now in full wachine-machine overdrive. Why isn’t he bored of it all yet?"
The statement in full can be read below.
A BBC radio program supposedly tracking the story of the Smiths will be aired on July 13. The BBC has warned that it is critical in nature towards Morrissey.
Morrissey was not invited to take part in this timeworn story - which has seen at least five identical documentaries wherein Marr grabs center stage as the unchanging face of discord … and Bigmarr Strikes Again. The souring of the Smiths dream unravels once again through Marr’s mechanical paces, which are by now totally predictable plot development. The outcome is never in doubt - Marr angel; Morrissey executioner. Forty years on, Marr cannot do anything with his life but look back. The truth is always ignored. The tired lie that I left a note on Andy Rourke’s car saying ‘you are fired’ lives on with sly determination. Yes, I imagine there was a note, and yes, I imagine my name was scribbled across it mischievously - by someone unknown to the BBC. But I hadn’t hired Andy Rourke and I would have no place nor right to fire him.
The Smiths was my voice, my lyrics, my song-titles, my album titles, my single and album artwork, my vision, my vocal melodies, my emotions - nobody else’s. When The Guardian say that they love the Smiths but hate Morrissey, it is like saying ‘we hate David Bowie but we love the Spiders From Mars’. It’s all so staged, isn’t it?
As if ANYONE could listen to the Smiths yet somehow magically find a way to negotiate AROUND Morrissey and pretend he wasn’t there! When The Guardian first jumped on me in 2015 and made me the focus of their hourly malice, Marr possibly appeared in their offices the next day - sweeping the stairs and waxing the floors. This was his big chance to sway people away from the notion of the Smiths as my project. Beyond playing the music, nobody else had one single idea - but the writer Gareth Roberts took it too far when he recently said: “Remove Morrissey from the Smiths and you are left with Haircut 100”.
Funny, but not quite true.
This new BBC program already sounds like it is NOT for anyone who knows or cares about the Smiths. Marr has intentionally divided the Smiths audience into Marr or Morrissey factions; he has legally claimed the Smiths trade mark name as his - knowing full well that the name was devised by Morrissey. He has devoted his entire life to killing Morrissey in whatever way available. He embodies precisely what he claims to hate in others. His predatory sport of ‘calling Morrissey names’ is now in full wachine-machine overdrive. Why isn’t he bored of it all yet?
I am somehow more shocked by the words of Grant Showbiz in this BBC program. They are slanderous, and even worse-they come from someone whom I always held solidly in the highest regard - until now. Even Soviet Statues crumble.
The people who continually shout the loudest are those who look for relevance. Marr, I firmly believe, is destroying the legacy of the Smiths. He plants seeds of doubt everywhere. He’s done it so loudly and so often that he has trapped himself.
I have relentlessly faced the slings and arrows of the most vile of the devils snares - be they Marr, or The Guardian. It is said that those who vomit out the same corrupt hatred decade after decade are half in love with their targets, hence their romantic possession. Otherwise, they’d move on - disinclined to devote their adult lives to someone whom they claim is tat. Marr has turned his back on the Smiths in order to get the black wax seal from the haters. He has not ever felt the lyrics to How Soon is Now? - which is why he sings them with all of the romantic enchantment of Leslie Crowther.
How fantastic life would have been if Marr had chosen four more studio albums with the Smiths instead of joining and then being thrown out of the Pretenders.
Let the pie-fights continue. I shall always be reborn. The only artistic beauty in this world is whatever we bring to it. On the other hand, you have those who obliterate for pay. They have absolutely nothing else to offer.
I apologise for use of my own name in the third person (illeism), but it’s easier on both eyes.
MORRISSEY
Oslo, Norway
Monday 22 June 2026
Last year, Johnny Marr revealed that he rejected a proposal offering "an eye-watering amount of money" for The Smiths to reform, and that he has no regrets about doing so.
"I’m not an idiot, I just think the vibe’s not right," he stated.
