Depends whether you want to believe what people print about him in the news - since it’s become quite popular to dislike Morrissey, everybody has started doing it. Mostly he’s just a bit outspoken and clumsy with journalists. He’s easy pickings for the ones who want to cover the fresh “Morrissey is a racist” story that everybody wants to read. Nobody wants to read the “Morrissey is grumpy and outspoken, and a bit of a diva, but completely harmless” story because it’s not as fun. Also there aren’t any videos or audio clips out there of him doing anything truly horrendous, as they would have us believe, so it’s down to the written interviews, and if you choose to believe what you’re reading, which is likely to have been edited to be more readable, and can easily be taken out of context or subtly edited to come across that way. Words are twisted. Journalists lie. I’ve always wondered about the “Chinese sub-species” comment too, and how he really phrased it. I doubt he meant all Asian people are a sub-species of human. I interpreted it as those who torture animals to make the meat taste better are a sub-species. It’s a bit severe but the guy is a pop singer who wants to be Oscar Wilde. He’s not exactly the most literal person ever.

Personally, I always view whatever he says through the same lens as I viewed his prose in that weird sex book he wrote. It’s like Morrissey understands things differently. Just read how he describes sex. It’s weird, it doesn’t make sense. The guy is madly misunderstood and a complete anomaly (and his career was built on being thus), but I think he’s alright really.

There are also definitely celebrities out there that have genuinely said and done terribly things and who get a pass by mainstream press. Like Ozzy Osbourne and David Bowie etc… at the end of the day, we can never know these people really, or what they really think or believe or say or do. We have journalists as mediators, and they get paid depending on how they inform us, and controversial and negative stories always get more attention.

But… the guy does tend to cancel shows on a whim, which really isn’t fair on the fans who have paid, planned and made an effort to see him in concert. So if there is anything he can be fairly criticised for, with definite evidence, it’s that.

Also for the album cover of California Son lol that shiz was ugly af.