{"id":268777,"date":"2025-11-03T12:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T12:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/268777\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T12:11:07","slug":"the-smiths-mike-joyce-on-fans-reactions-to-morrisseys-politics-and-their-unusual-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/268777\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on fans’ reactions to Morrissey’s politics and their “unusual relationship”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Joyce has reflected on the fan response to Morrissey<\/a>\u2018s politics and shed light on their \u201cunusual relationship\u201d in a new interview.<\/p>\n

The Smiths<\/a> drummer is set to share his autobiography, <\/a>The Drums, this Thursday (November 6), promising fans a \u201cno-holds-barred\u201d view of the band from \u201cthe perspective of the self-confessed biggest Smiths fan in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

He sat down with the Guardian<\/a> ahead of the book\u2019s release and looked back at his time in the band, charting their\u00a0infamously legal battles and the ongoing controversy Morrissey\u2019s worldviews have garnered.<\/p>\n

His perceived proximity to the far-right made headlines as far back as 2016, when\u00a0he hailed the Brexit result as \u201cmagnificent\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0called<\/a> Farage a \u201cliberal educator\u201d.<\/p>\n

Later, in 2018,\u00a0Morrissey said that he \u201cdespises\u201d racism and fascism in an open letter that threw support behind the far-right party For Britain<\/a>, which Anne Marie Waters formed following her departure from UKIP after Farage dubbed her and her supporters\u00a0\u201cNazis and racists\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Backlash continued in 2019 when Morrissey wore\u00a0a badge featuring the logo of far-right anti-Islam political party For Britain<\/a>\u00a0during an appearance on\u00a0Fallon,\u00a0something he went on to address in an interview held by his nephew, Sam Etsy Rayner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve gleaned, he\u2019s certainly got very different politics to mine,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s his opinion. He just seems very angry about a lot of things. Of course, I hear it \u2013 people saying, \u2018I can\u2019t listen to the Smiths. I can\u2019t separate the art from the artist.\u2019 If that\u2019s how you feel, that\u2019s fine,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He did add that the choice to avoid their music didn\u2019t make sense to him, but acknowledged he was \u201clistening to it from a very different perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Marr back in 2019 after Morrissey\u2019s music was banned from record stores over his support of For Britain<\/a>, and asked the guitarist if he had similar worries about a new generation of fans missing out on the music of The Smiths as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I don\u2019t think you can change history. I\u2019ve said that before, I\u2019m not worried,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s got nothing to do with my world or my life. The songs are out there for people to judge, relate to and hear. I think that\u2019s all going to be forgotten in a few weeks, as these things inevitably are \u2013 for better or worse. It\u2019s always been that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also spoke to Joyce last year about ending his decades-long feud with Marr<\/a>, who he hadn\u2019t spoken to since he\u00a0sued Marr and\u00a0Morrissey<\/a>\u00a0in 1996 over The Smiths\u2019 royalties. The drummer won the case and was awarded \u00a31million damages.<\/p>\n

Joyce told NME he met Marr at a private service in Manchester last May to mark a year since the death of Andy Rourke<\/a>\u00a0from pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d seen Johnny at Manchester City games and we\u2019d keep it civil, but there\u2019d be no conversation,\u201d said Joyce.\u00a0\u201cI knew Johnny was going to be at Andy\u2019s service and I thought: \u2018This isn\u2019t about me or Johnny, it\u2019s nothing other than Andy\u2019. With that in mind, I was quite comfortable about seeing Johnny.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t tough when I saw him, it was just unusual, as I hadn\u2019t spoken properly to Johnny for years and years. But we had a good chat there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Guardian article, Joyce looked back to the band\u2019s formation and said Morrissey \u201chardly spoke to me\u201d, and explained why he found it hard to describe him in the book. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to sound like I didn\u2019t like Morrissey. He was fucking great. Very funny bloke, cutting humour. But it was such an unusual relationship. There was a distance. I accepted we were just very different people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Their differences have seen Morrissey take to his website<\/a>\u00a0to confirm\u00a0that he had \u201cno choice but to offer for sale all of his business interests\u201d in The Smiths\u00a0to any potential investors or parties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI am burnt out by any and all connections to\u00a0[Johnny] Marr<\/a>,\u00a0[Andy] Rourke<\/a>, [Mike] Joyce. I have had enough of malicious associations. With my entire life I have paid my rightful dues to these songs and these images. I would now like to live disassociated from those who wish me nothing but ill-will and destruction, and this is the only resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subsequent update announced that\u00a0the email address for offers had been \u201cswitched off\u201d due to a \u201ccolossal response\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere,\u00a0he revealed that he had \u201cpolitely declined\u201d an invitation to perform at Reform UK\u2019s party conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Drums is available for pre-order now<\/a>, with HMV offering a limited hardback edition \u2013 limited to one copy per customer \u2013 signed by Mike Joyce himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Joyce has reflected on the fan response to Morrissey\u2018s politics and shed light on their \u201cunusual relationship\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,16127,216,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-268777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}