We’re still a few months away from Morrissey’s June 7 date at the Boston Opera House, but the singer is making headlines around the world for remarks in a wide-ranging interview with Billboard.
In it, he claims no one wants a Smiths reunion, he was never influenced by the Beatles, and hospital food is terrible (we’ll let you figure on which one of those he’s wrong about). Mozzer took the time to chat with the magazine while recording a new record in France, his first since 2009’s Years of Refusal. He signed a two-record deal with Harvest Records last month, and we’ll probably hear some new tunes on this upcoming tour.
Here are some highlights from the Q&A…
On a Smiths reunion:
“I don’t know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion! But, no, there aren’t any bands I like to see again because your memory of them is how they were in their prime or at their best or at their most desperate, and you look to them to be someone that they no longer are.”
On if he was influenced by the Beatles:
“I thought four of their songs were magnificent, and if a band can give you four magnificent songs then that’s good enough for me. But was I ever influenced by the Beatles? No.”
On his remark that meat-eaters are the equivalent of pedophiles:
“I don’t need to defend my own point of view. When you eat an animal you subject it to spiritual and physical rape, you eats its breasts … its rump … you cut off its genitals … whichever way you care to look at it, eating animals is violence at its most extreme.”
On his secret talent:
I’m an exceptional ping-pong player.
Here’s the Mozzer’s full run of dates, which include May 10 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena with Tom Jones, and a closing gig June 21 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center with Cliff Richard.
Head over to Do617 to win tickets to the Boston gig. We get opener Kristeen Young, again by the way.
MORRISSEY 2014 TOUR
May 7 San Jose CA City National Civic Auditorium
May 10 Los Angeles CA Los Angeles Sports Arena
May 13 El Paso TX Plaza Theater
May 14 Albuquerque NM Sunshine Theater
May 16 Salt Lake City UT Kingsbury Hall
May 17 Denver CO Ellie Caulkins Opera House
May 19 Lincoln NE Rococo Theatre
May 20 Lawrence KS Liberty Hall
May 22 Dallas TX Majestic Theatre
May 24 Austin TX Austin Music Hall
May 25 Beaumont TX Julie Rogers Theatre
May 27 Memphis TN Orpheum Theatre
May 28 Nashville TN Ryman Auditorium
May 30 St Petersburg FL Mahaffey Theater
May 31 Miami FL Knight Concert Hall
June 4 Atlanta GA Cobb Energy Center
June 6 Atlantic City NJ Revel Ovation Hall
June 7 Boston MA Boston Opera House
June 10 Baltimore MD Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
June 13 Chicago IL Civic Opera House
June 14 Flint MI James Whiting Auditorium
June 16 Lewiston NY Artpark Main Stage Theater
June 17 Wilmington DE Grand Opera House
June 19 Hershey PA Hershey Theatre
June 21 New York NY Barclays Center Arena
