Almost 40 years after The Smiths broke up, Morrissey is truly leaving the band.
At least the singer’s 50% stake in the iconic Manchester group.
On hiatus from touring this summer and about to start a series of shows in Canada, the East Coast and hitting Smiths stronghold of LA on October 25, the man known as Moz has put up for sale his rights to the songs, the name, the merch, and perhaps most importantly and lucratively the publishing.
In a post on Instagram Wednesday, Morrissey said he “has no choice but to offer for sale all of his business interests in ‘The Smiths’ to any interested party / investor.” Possibly running into the tens of millions at least, the successful bidder would purchase:
1. The name ‘The Smiths’, as created by Morrissey.
2. All Smiths artwork, as created by Morrissey.
3. All Smiths merchandising rights.
4. All Smiths songs lyrically / musically.
5. All synchronisation rights.
6. All Smiths recordings.
7. All contractual rights for Smiths publishing.
If there was any doubt of the origins of this surprise move by Morrissey, who broke ranks with his now ex-reps at Red Light Management / Pete Galli Management in 2024 after just a few months, the songwriter made it clear that he feels he doesn’t owe anything, to paraphrase a Smith tune, to his former bandmates living and dead. “I am burnt out by any and all connections to Marr, Rourke, Joyce,” he wrote today of Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, now deceased bass player Andy Rourke and estranged drummer Mike Joyce. “I have had enough of malicious associations.
With legacy artists across all genres like Kiss ($300M for everything), Bruce Springsteen ($500M for his catalog), David Bowie ($250M for his catalog) and Michael Jackson (whose estate sold 50% of the Thriller singer’s music assets to Sony Music Group last year for $1.2B) cashing in, Morrissey’s move is neither crass nor careless by any measure.
Looking at The Smiths’ depth musically from their 1984 self-titled debut to their masterpiece of The Queen Is Dead in 1986 and more, plus the generation defining epic “How Soon Is Now?” song, the band is certainly a money maker even today.
Part of any estimation of the worth of Morrissey’s portion of the Smiths, who broke up in after five years together in 1987 not long after Marr left, has to be the stature the band has in contemporary culture. Specifically, as the soundtrack to many a life, from the 1980s and onward on both sides of the pond.
The band’s songs have been used in dozens of films from Pretty in Pink, The Wedding Singer, Never Been Kissed and Shaun of the Dead to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, (500) Days of Summer, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. The Smiths also have appeared on TV’s Sex Education, Black Mirror, American Horror Story, Psych, That ‘80s Show and many more. Love Spit Love’s cover of “How Soon Is Now?” was theme song of original Charmed series. Lifting a Smiths title for its own, 2021 drama Shoplifters of the World was about a group of fans reacting to the break-up of the band by taking over a local radio station to make them play only the Smiths songs
To all that, like the Oasis and Guns’n’Roses reunion tours, a Smiths revival could see the band bigger on tour than they were in their heyday.
However, the trial balloon of a reunion tour for an an “eye-watering amount of money” was shot down by Marr last year. “It was a little bit about principles, but I’m not an idiot,” Marr said on a soccer podcast earlier this year. “I just think the vibe’s not right.”
The offer from AEG Entertainment Group came after bassist Rourke had died in May 2023. Morrissey, whose bookings are handled by WME, initially said Marr ignored the “lucrative offer.” In September 2024, Marr posted his response online, stressing he didn’t “ignore the offer — I said no.”
Adding to antagonism between the two songwriting partners, both of whom hav had pretty stellar solo careers the past four decades, has been Marr’s 2018 trademarking of The Smiths name. Learning in 2018 that no one had actually obtained the band’s trademark of itself, the guitarist had his team complete the paperwork. Morrissey, a.k.a Steven Morrissey, claimed Marr made the move “without consultation.”
At the time, Marr said not true.
“A failure to respond led Marr to register the trademark himself,” Marr said in a September 2024 statement. “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.”
As of now, Morrissey is taking offers.
Reps for Johnny Marr, who has been a frequent collaborator with Hans Zimmer on film scores in recent years, did not respond today to Deadline’s request for comment on Morrissey’s sale news. Then again, to quote the title of one of the band’s 1986 songs, “Is It Really So Strange?”
Erik Pedersen contributed to this article
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