Indie rock star Morrissey has recently been outspoken about his right leaning political beliefs. In the last year the artist expressed support for the For Britain movement. This political party is highly conservative and was founded by Anne Marie Waters, an anti-Islam activist. Recently, Morrissey continued to display his public support while wearing a For Britain pin on The Tonight Show.
Morrissey additionally made some controversial statements regarding racial tensions in an interview he posted to his website. The songwriter stated, “Everyone ultimately prefers their own race … does this make everyone racist? The people who reduce every conversation down to a matter of race could be said to be the most traditionally ‘racist’ because everything in life is NOT exclusively a question of race, so why make it so?”
Due to Morrissey’s contentious statements, multiple artists decided to comment. As Morrissey and Interpol are set to do fall tour this year, Paul Banks of Interpol made a small statement on the decision to tour with Morrissey. He explained, “We thought it would be a good show for our band. That’s how I’m looking at it. I don’t get too much into the other stuff.”
Longtime friend and frequent collaborator with The Smiths, Bill Bragg decided to speak his mind on Morrissey’s political identity. He stated, “I think he’s decided that he wants to betray everything he ever said in the Smiths, and he’s broken the hearts of a lot of people… The Smiths expressed a lot of people’s own sense of disconnect with society and helped them to find their own identity, and he’s totally trashed that. I’m heartbroken for them because I’m a big Smiths fan, too. And I’m heartbroken for Johnny Marr because he’s genuine, a lovely guy, and he doesn’t deserve to have his legacy dragged through the dirt…I have no sympathy for [Morrissey], no respect for him, but I have a lot of sympathy and respect for his audience.”
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