Morrissey’s recent post on Instagram fueled rumors of the Smiths reunion with Johnny Marr.
“I am well aware of The Smiths’ rise in recent years, and their affirmed position in our cultural heritage,” the singer wrote by sharing a photo of the band from Rockerilla magazine. “It proves how taking risks can work beautifully … and if you don’t take risks when you make music then what the hell are you doing making music?”
He continued, “I am incredibly grateful to anyone who walked out to buy, or who stayed in to download, Smiths’ music. The musicians are considered to be those who make the change, but the consumer plays an equal part by having faith.”
“We’re all in this together,” the rocker added. “It was always about a refusal to surrender to enemy propaganda – something I still face today just as much as I faced it in 1983, 84, 85, 86, and 87. The Smiths do not end.”
Fans are wondering why Morrissey shared this statement. Many commenters thought that he was pointing to the reunion plan. However, Marr and Morrissey have both said many times they won’t reunite the band. In 2006, Morrissey said, “I would rather eat my own testicles than reform the Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian.”
“I feel as if I’ve worked very hard since the demise of the Smiths and the others haven’t, so why hand them attention that they haven’t earned? We are not friends, we don’t see each other,” Morrissey noted in another interview in the same year. “Why on earth would we be on a stage together?”
In March 2006, Morrissey said The Smiths turned down a $5 million offer to play at Coachella, “Money doesn’t come into it … It was a fantastic journey. And then it ended. I didn’t feel we should have ended. I wanted to continue. [Marr] wanted to end it. And that was that.”
In August 2007, it was reported that the singer turned down a $75 million offer to reunite with Marr for a world tour in 2008-2009. The offer was later called a hoax. In 2008, Morrissey and Marr briefly discussed a reunion but decided to wait. They stopped communicating, and the reunion plans never resumed.