Johnny Marr Responds to Morrissey’s Recent Claims About The Smiths: “It Was Left To Me To Protect The Legacy”

Following Morrissey’s recent claims about the Smiths’ trademark status and rejected reunion offers, the band’s former guitarist Johnny Marr issued a response of his own on Instagram on Tuesday (September 17). Marr released a statement, “In the interests of accuracy and clarity,” because “recent statements made by Morrissey…are incorrect.” Apparently, in 2008 a third party attempted to use the Smiths name and Marr discovered that the trademark was not owned by the band. Marr secured the trademark himself after not hearing from Morrissey, but the assignment of joint ownership is still awaiting Moz’s signature. Marr dispels Morrissey’s claims that he will tour as the Smiths with a new lead singer, while going on to state, “To prevent third parties from profiting from the band’s name, it was left to me to protect the legacy. This I have done on behalf of both myself and my former bandmates. As for the offer to tour, I didn’t ignore the offer – I said no.” (Variety)