Johnny Marr Clarifies Smiths Reunion Reports: ‘I Didn’t Ignore the Offer – I Said No’
The guitarist also refutes Morrissey’s claims that he acquired the Smiths trademark to use on his own behalf
Johnny Marr (left) and Morrissey of the group The Smiths posed with their arms around a tree trunk in London in 1983. Clare Muller/Redferns/Getty Images
Last month, Morrissey dropped the rather stunning news that he accepted a “lucrative offer” from AEG Entertainment Group to reform the Smiths alongside Johnny Marr. “Marr ignored the offer,” Morrissey wrote before referring to himself in the third person. “Morrissey undertakes a largely sold out tour of the USA in November. Marr continues to tour as a special guest to New Order.”
In a new public statement, Marr says his former bandmate didn’t accurately convey what happened. “I didn’t ignore the offer,” he wrote. “I said no.”
The news comes a little over a year after Smith bassist Andy Rourke, who was one of Marr’s closest friends since childhood, died after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, making any proper reunion of the Smiths impossible. Drummer Mike Joyce has been estranged from Morrissey and Marr since a 1996 lawsuit over the Smiths royalties that grew extremely contentious.
Morrissey also made a recent claim that Marr acquired the Smiths trademark and now has the power to replace him as the group’s lead singer. “This action was done without any consultation to Morrissey, and without allowing Morrissey the standard opportunity of ‘objection,” Morrisey wrote. “It prohibits Morrissey from using the name whilst also denying Morrissey considerable financial livelihood. Morrissey alone created the musical unit name ‘The Smiths’ in May 1982.”
Marr’s management team says this also isn’t totally accruate. According to them, there was an attempt by an outside party to use the Smiths name in 2018, likely referring to a proposed semi-reunion concert featuring Joyce, Rourke, and former Smiths touring guitarist Craig Gannon that was scuttled before it could take place. In the aftermath, Marr reached out to Morrissey’s team in an effort to jointly secure the band’s name.
“A failure to respond led Marr to register the trademark himself,” Marr’s management wrote. “It was subsequently agreed with Morrissey’s lawyers that this trademark was held for the mutual benefit of Morrissey and Marr. As a gesture of goodwill, in January 2024, Marr signed an assignment of joint ownership to Morrissey. Execution of this document still requires Morrissey to sign.”
“To prevent third parties from profiting from the band’s name, it was left to me protect the legacy,” Marr added himself. “This I have done on behalf of both myself and my former bandmates.”
Morrissey and Marr have had an extremely distant relationship ever since the Smiths dissolved in 1987. In 2008, however, they did meet at a pub to discuss a possible Smiths reunion. “In that moment it seemed that with the right intention it could actually be done and might even be great,” Marr wrote in his 2016 memoir Set The Boy Free. “For four days it was a very real prospect. We would have to get someone new on drums, but if the Smiths wanted to re-form it would make a hell of a lot of people very happy, and with all our experience we might even be better than before.”
It felt apart after Marr went to Mexico to tour with the Cribs. “And then suddenly there was radio silence,” Marr wrote. “Our communication ended, and things went back to how they were and how I expect they always will be.”
From Rolling Stone US
