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Morrissey denies defending Kevin Spacey (again)

By | Published on Tuesday 12 December 2017

Morrissey

Morrissey has issued a statement again refuting that he defended Kevin Spacey in a recent interview with Der Spiegel.

As previously reported, the musician was quoted by the German news magazine as saying that the victims of Spacey and Harvey Weinstein should take some of the blame for their alleged sexual assaults. Elsewhere, the publication also wrote him up as saying that it’s no longer possible to tell someone you like them without being accused of assault, that he would kill Donald Trump given the chance, and that that multiculturalism has made Berlin “the rape capital” of Europe.

Subsequently, Morrissey claimed on stage that he had been misquoted, saying that he would never do another interview with a print title. He also said that you should never believe any words ascribed to him unless you see them coming out of his mouth yourself. Which means I guess we have to take this new written statement with a pinch of salt.

In that statement, he says that he would not kill Donald Trump, and does not support Kevin Spacey, child abuse, sexual harassment or rape. He doesn’t mention Weinstein or his views on nationalism. Nor does he make any reference to similar comments apparently defending Weinstein and others quoted more recently by The Sunday Times.

But why would Der Spiegel fabricate an interview after going to the trouble of flying from Germany to the US in order to speak to him? Because Morrissey has the answers for how to make the world a better place and they don’t want us to know that. Or something. I’m not entirely clear about this next bit.

“In the world of music, as with politics, if you show any signs of being able to make a difference, you will be blocked, and you will have your arms tugged out from their sockets. In the same world of music, if you have nothing to say, if your brain is a mental frost and if your pointless songs are the eyes of a dead fish, then your number one position awaits unasked, and your five star reviews shall keep the press alive”.

If you made it to the end of that very long sentence, I think that was Morrissey claiming that gushing reviews are sustaining the media business at the moment. As opposed to interviews with controversial figures willing to shoot their mouths off at the drop of a hat. I’m pretty sure it’s the other way round, but whatever.

“Music is eternity, and the call of 2018 is the time to be new and different. But you must forget the print media who are infatuated with their own reflection and do not want yours”, he goes on. Der Spiegel means The Mirror. I’m not sure if he was making a reference to that there or if it was just nonsense.

Anyway, he continues: “Be eggless and brainless and cloudy and crap, and they’ll usher you through like a little bag of dung. Can you hear the wind between each ear?”

Returning to the point, he says that his team’s requests to be sent “unchopped, unfiddled-with audio” of the Der Spiegel interview have been refused. “Let that alone be your answer”, he concludes. I’m not entirely sure I remember the question.



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