Turns out Morrissey actually carrying out a tour has its drawbacks—namely, all the press that the former Smiths frontman is invited to do to promote his latest trek. Interviews with Moz usually result in some prickly bullshit, whether he’s weighing in on Brexit or some other international tragedy. But now that the floodgates have opened on Hollywood’s sexual predators and the system that enables them, Morrissey finds himself in more turbulent times than usual. So naturally, his responses are worse than ever, like suggesting that Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault of a 14-year-old Anthony Rapp was just a botched come-on, or making a racist assumption that multiculturalism in Germany has made it “the rape capital” of world, as well as making bogeymen out of the media and interracial relationships.
Most of those comments were translated from a German interview, but just in case you were thinking of giving old Moz the benefit of the doubt, he doubled down in his native tongue to the UK’s Sunday Times. He reiterated his position on sexual harassment, which he warns we must all be careful about because “often it can be just a pathetic attempt at courtship.” (Jesus fucking Christ. Excuse us.)
Anyway, since repeating his comments did nothing to combat the backlash, Morrissey is now taking a vow of silence—at least, as far as print and digital publications go. The Low In High School artist declared to a Chicago audience this weekend that it “was the last print interview I will ever do.” Furthermore, “unless you see the words form in my mouth and then you see or hear the words come out of my mouth… please, if you don’t see that, I didn’t say them.” It is unclear if this means Morrissey will only do on-camera interviews, which would be a bummer for many outlets, except that this is Morrissey we’re talking about, so it’s probably more of a win-win.