Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey's open letter asking "please stop mentioning my name"

On Tuesday, Morrissey posted an open letter to his onetime Smiths collaborator Johnny Marr on his Morrissey Central website. He asked Marr to stop talking about him in the press.

“The fact is: you don’t know me,” Morrissey writes. “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. We haven’t known each other for 35 years – which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?”

Of course, he goes on: “You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ – not me…Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that. Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me.” You can read the whole thing here.

In Johnny’s defense, it’s not just the British press. It’s all press, they will never stop asking him about Morrissey or if there is somehow a chance they could reunite. The Smiths are the most culturally significant, most-loved thing either have ever done, though they’ve both done a lot in the 35 years since the band broke up, and Marr is currently on a promotion cycle for his upcoming album, Fever Dreams. He’s getting asked about Morrissey every time and, genial guy that he is, he answers.

Marr has now responded to Morrissey’s open letter via his Twitter. “Dear @officialmoz,” he writes. “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”

The Smiths will never reunite. but this is probably not the last we’ll hear about this.