Today Morrissey took to You Tube to directly address fans and re-assert his stance on a number of issues and discuss politics, free speech, and the print media. In the emotional and dramatic eight minute video he emphatically called out Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and other media outlets as "haters" who "derailed and damaged" his campaign for Low In High School, alleging that the press are trying to get fans to turn on him and ruin him.
He revealed that the Secret Service paid him a visit after learning of anti-Trump comments attributed to him during his Der Spiegel interview. Even though after his "cross-examination" the Secret Service assured him "there had no cause for concern," Morrissey claims his status in the U.S. is now in jeopardy and he may not be able to return.
It wasn't all apocalyptic news though - he thanked fans for supporting Low In High School and said he and the band consider his recent U.S. tour "the best concerts of our lives." He named a handful of shows on the tour he particularly enjoyed (not Detroit), and gave props to BBC 6, Jools Holland, and Graham Norton for giving him the opportunity to perform on British television.
Near the end of the video he took a moment to remember the victims of the May 22nd bombing at Manchester Arena "I'd like to let their spirit know that they are remembered by at least me, if not many other people."
It's really quite a striking and fascinating video - his words, emotion, the way he emphasizes his points, and most interesting of all -- the gestures/facial expressions/non-verbal communication which reveal way more than words ever could.
Watch Morrissey's State Of The Union Address in full below:
Transcript:
"I wanted to take this rare opportunity to say hello to you and to thank you earnestly for buying Low In High School, which is here (shows LP cover), of which I'm very proud.
And again, thank you for buying it, we had higher hopes - everything looked great for a higher chart position, but, as usual, not to be. But nevermind, the music exists and I'm really proud of it, and hopefully in the future, maybe next year...the year after, I don't know, it will be reviewed properly by people.
Also as you know we released "Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up On The Stage" a couple of weeks ago. It received no airplay, just one by Jonathan -- which was very nice -- otherwise nobody will play it, and I suspect it's because of the hateful press I've received over the last three weeks in Britain by the usual outlets, mainly The Guardian and so forth, but the usual haters are very determined.
And so in many ways they do succeed, because there's a lot of them, and everything they said goes back to a recent interview I regrettably gave, with Der Spiegel in Germany, the newspaper.
When it emerged in print after a very pleasant conversation, it emerged in print, and suddenly I was sympathizing with sexual harassment, I was apparently sympathizing with pedophilia, I was sympathizing with rape, I was sympathizing with everything that would persuade anybody on the planet to stop listening to me.
Of course none of those assumptions were true.
I do not support anything like that, you can hear it even in the tone of my voice.
However this is the world we now live in with the print media. It seems to me that in the first place they get very angry or very excited if you start to say something that people are listening to, or that reflect the will of the people, they get really nervous they won't allow it, they shut it down and so forth.
But also it seems to me in England at the moment the right wing has adopted a left wing stance and the left wing has adopted a right wing stance, so everybody's confused and nobody seems to know what people mean. This shuts down free speech, this shuts down any open debate about anything and consequently we're all in a mess and we don't know where we stand.
So I feel that the campaign for Low In High School and for surrounding singles was derailed and damaged purposely by the haters. They're not listening to the music, they're not listening to anything really, they see my name and they just want to get rid of it as quickly as possible, and as I said in many ways they do succeed, there's not really that much you can do about it, you have to live with it and you have to try to carry on and be as positive as you can.
Thankfully I have a very strong audience and I have for 35 years, which seems to count for absolutely nothing, but nonetheless, I'm still here, and I must tell everybody in the United States, that recently we had a fantastic tour in America...especially the nights in Washington, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix...they were the best concerts of our lives and we're really grateful.
As a further result of Der Spiegel, I was cross-examined by the American Secret Service, who were very very nice, and I do understand their position. So that went very, very well, and they assured me that they had no cause for concern, but it was a direct result of Der Spiegel, that I was cross-examined, which is very, very sad.
So congratulations Der Spiegel, you achieved everything you set out to do.
Whether again I'm allowed free access to America I really don't know. I have to wait and see if I can enter the country again. But we never know.
If I can't, I have to say a very sincere thanks to everybody who supported me in the U.S. On one week, Los Angeles announces Morrissey Day and then a week later I'm being cross-examined by the Secret Service, so that's a perfect reflection of how the entire world is now.
People just, nobody has any answers, everybody's very very frightened about everything. So by being frightened about everything you simply target people willy nilly about whom you know nothing and you write things about people whom you've never met, and you denigrate them and destroy them because there's a certain blame and shame culture that has risen where all of us are destroyed constantly no matter what we do, and it doesn't really matter what we do and what we say.
Occasionally it becomes hard to live with, certainly on issues of pedophilia, sexual harassment, rape, I think critics consider all the things that are important to your audience and therefore they consider all the things that would turn your audience against you, and THAT is what they accuse you of, in order to make your audience angry with you. Because they know there's no other way, especially when you've been around as long as I have.
And I've been assassinated many many times however, I'm still here. What happens next year, I really don't know. I don't know where this will go to, whichever way it doesn't matter, because I, I simply want to thank you.
As the year closes now I would like to remember all the kids in Manchester who were murdered on May 22nd of this year, they're largely forgotten because most terrorist activities are immediately forgotten I find. So I would like to remember them, I'd like to let their spirit know that they are remembered by at least me, if not many other people.
And I would also like to, I would also like to thank such as Jools Holland, Graham Norton, BBC 6, who gave me a chance to sing this year on television, it was great -- did I appear anywhere else? I can't remember -- but that was very nice of them.
So again thank you and whatever will be in 2018 will be, and I would finally ask that you please, please, don't believe what other people say about me. But believe whatever you think when you see me and when you hear me, because it's quite a different thing, so that's all I ask of you, and I wish you a Christmas free of terrorism and these days that's all we can ask for.
Be safe."
Published December 18th, 2017