Morrissey has claimed that a 2025 reunion deal was on the table for the Smiths, but guitarist Johnny Marr did not acknowledge the offer.
In a statement posted to his website, under the title “War Is Old, Art Is Young,” the singer said the following: “In June 2024 AEG Entertainment Group made a lucrative offer to both Morrissey and Marr to tour worldwide as ‘The Smiths’ throughout 2025. Morrissey said yes to the offer; Marr ignored the offer.”
The statement continued by noting the two musicians’ current plans: “Morrissey undertakes a largely sold-out tour of the U.S.A. in November. Marr continues to tour as a special guest to New Order.”
If Oasis Can Do It, Can the Smiths?
Earlier this week, another beloved British band, Oasis, announced they would be reuniting for a series of 2025 concerts, sparking questions about a similar fate for the Smiths. Like Noel and Liam Gallagher, Morrissey and Marr’s relationship has been on the rocks for years. The Smiths broke up in 1987, the two have hardly spoken since then, and each have pursued their own solo projects.
Online, a fan wrote “If Oasis can do it the Smiths can too (I’m delusional),” to which Marr replied with a photo of Nigel Farage. It was presumably a reference to Morrissey’s support of the far-right British politician — in 2019, Marr commented on rumors of a 2020 Smiths reunion by saying that Farage would be the one playing guitar for it.
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Just earlier this month, Morrissey posted a statement on his website about “the Smiths’ rise in recents years,” saying: “We’re all in this together. It was always about a refusal to surrender to enemy propaganda — something I still face today just as much as I faced it in 1983, ’84, ’85, ’86 and ’87. The Smiths do not end.”
Marr has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a reunion over the years and has not, at the time of this writing, commented on Morrissey’s new statement.
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening, except as noted below.