"You shut your mouth, how can you say, I go about things the wrong way.
I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does."
"How Soon Is Now" - The Smiths

Over the backdrop of England's "No Feelings" punk era, the simple truth of words like Morrisey's above could not be ignored. Throughout his lyrical catalog, he speaks about the human battle to overcome isolation and find real belonging and personal connection. A subject that has attached his followers to him like glue.

"Pop music was all I ever had," he told Stephen Holden of The New York Times in 1991, "and it was completely entwined with the image of the pop star. I remember feeling that the person singing was actually with me and understood me and my predicament."

He was a captivated music fan from an early age, starting out with typical early-English punk gateway band, T-Rex, who he went to see for his first concert with his dad at 13. He was regularly writing letters to the British music press, including the New Musical Express and Melody Maker, by the time he was 15.

Morrissey was an early convert to punk rock. As a teenager, he became President of the UK Branch of The New York Dolls Fan Club. He would later engineer the Dolls 2004 reunion, documented in the 2006 movie New York Doll. The reunion provided a bright spot at the end of bass player Arthur "Killer" Kane's life before his death from Leukemia. Morrissey talked about his life long love for the band in the film, "Some bands grab you and they never let you go and no matter what they do, they can never let you down...The Dolls were that for me."

Morrissey also co-founded The Cramps fan club, Legion Of The Cramped, and took a major role in the club until his work as a musician forced him to scale back his duties.

Morrissey became the frontman for the punk band, The Nosebleeds in 1978 with Billy Duffy of The Cult on guitar. Duffy and Morrissey wrote songs for the band together, but they were never recorded. TItles included "Peppermint Heaven," "I Get Nervous" and "I'm Ready For The Electric Chair." They split up in less than a year and Duffy brought Morrissey along to join Slaughter And The Dogs. He was only in the band briefly.

He met guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982 and the two started writing songs. They made several demos, then began working with Mike Joyce who would remain The Smith's drummer throughout their career. They added Marr's friend Andy Rourke on bass and signed on British indie label, Rough Trade Records. After releasing the single "Hand In Glove" in May 1983, they gained the support of English starmaker DJ John Peel. They released a few more singles including, "This Charming Man," and "What Difference Does It Make?" Then recorded a series of studio sessions for Peel and David Jensen at BBC Radio 1. Their first album The Smiths, released in February 1984, hit #2 on the UK album chart.

The Smiths followed up with charting singles including "William, It Was Really Nothing" backed with "How Soon Is Now." In 1984 they released Hatful of Hollow a collection of B-sides, singles and unreleased versions of Smiths Songs recorded the previous year in the BBC Sessions for Peel and Jensen. In 1985, they released their second album, Meat Is Murder, the band's only studio album to reach #1 on the UK Charts and a single-only release, "Shakespeare's Sister," which charted at #26 in the UK. They followed up with another UK #2 album, The Queen Is Dead. It's release was delayed by seven months due to legal struggles within Rough Trade Records. By the end of 1986, they had ended their association with the label, signing a deal with EMI with great opposition from their fans. The Smiths continued to enjoy commercial success, but their personal relationships became strained. Marr left the group in August 1987. Strangeways, their fourth album, was released after the band broke up.
Critics have called them one of the most important alterative rock bands to emerge from The 80s British Indie scene. They have had a huge influence on a mass of artists. The combination of Morrissey's alienated, longing lyrics and Marr's complex, riffing guitar melodies cleared the palate of the synth-heavy hair band sounds flooding the airwaves of the time and repopularized guitar-based rock. They had limited commercial success outside the UK but won an enduring, always growing following.
Morrissey said in a 1984 interview with Melody Maker that he chose the name "because it was the most orindary name," and he thought it was "time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces."

The band has never reunited. Morrissey told Stuart Antrobus of Gigwise.com that he would "rather eat [his] own testicles than re-form the Smiths, and that's saying something for a vegetarian." He explained to Barry Jeckell in an article posted on CNN.com in 2006 that "it was a fantastic journey. And then it ended. I didn't feel we should have ended. I wanted to continue. [Marr] wanted to end it. And that was that." He further explained his refusal to reunite, "I feel as if I've worked very hard since the demise of The Smiths, and the others haven't, so why hand them attention they haven't earned? We are not friends, we don't see each other. Why on earth would we be onstage together?"

In spite of Morrissey's attitude. many have tried. VH-1 tried to reunite them for their Bands Reunited show in 2005, but gave up when Aamer Haleem, the show's host, was unable to corner Morrissey before a show. In March 2006, Morrissey stated to Barry Jeckell that The Smiths had been offered $5 million to reunite for a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In August 2007, The NME reported that Morrissey had turned down nearly $40 million to reunite with Marr for a 50-date world tour to take place in 2008 and 2009. True-to-you.net, a fan site supported by Morriseey, reported that Morrissey was approached in Summer 2007 by a group of promoters offering $75 million to tour for a minimum of 50 dates over the next two years, although some have said that this offer was a hoax.

In an October 2007 interview on BBC Radio 5, Johnny Marr said of a future Smiths reunion, "Stranger things have happened so, you know, who knows?...It's no biggy. Maybe we will in 10 or 15 years time when we all need to for whatever reasons."
Rourke and Marr did perform together for the first time since The Smiths broke up, when Marr's band, Johhny Marr and the Healers, performed at a 2005 benefit for cancer research, Manchester V. Cancer, organized by Rourke's production company. Rourke joined them onstage to perform "How Soon Is Now?"

Marr said of The Smiths in a 1990 interview with Guitar Player magazine, "It was a 50/50 thing between Morrissey and Me. We were completely in sync about which way we should go for each record."

A Smiths compilation, The Sound Of The Smiths, released in Nov. 2008, is the closest thing to a reunion of The Smiths so far. Marr supervised the remastering of all the tracks and Morrissey named the record.

The Smiths would be just a prelude to Morrissey's greatest creative productivity and commercial success, fueled by their artistic credibility. Beginning with Viva Hate, which was released at #1 on the UK Album Charts just six months after the release of the Smiths last album, and continuinng through a series of publicly anticipated solo releases including Bona Drag, a compilation of B-Sides and Singles released in 1990, Kill Uncle, which peaked at #8 on the UK Charts, and 1992's Your Arsenal, produced by longtime Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson. Morrissey's next album, Vauxhall and I, released in 1994, was nominated for a Grammy as Best Alternative Album. Later that year he released the single, "Interlude," a duet with Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and The Banshees. In 1997 he released Maladjusted.

For all his writing about the need for belonging and connection, Morrissey's early public approach to his personal sexuality is almost unique in rock and roll. In an art form named for sex, he claimed to be asexual and spoke of being part of a fourth gender. In 1984 he claimed to be a "prophet for the fourth sex" because he was "bored with men ...and bored with women." and in 1986 to be "dramatically, supernaturally non-sexual." Johnny Marr told The Record Mirror in 1984 that "Morrissey doesn't participate in sex at the moment and hasn't done so for quite a while. He's had a lot of girlfriends in the past and quite a few men friends." And as late as1994, Morrissey said in an interview that "sex is actually never in my life." He would later go on to take a different stand on the subject.

While Morrissey spoke of being beyond sex, he repeatedly spoke of the larger human love and the need to give and receive it. He would make a point of trying to return the affection and friendliness of his fans and often greet them with a warm embrace. His affectionate attitude towards them has more than been returned. A ton of Morrissey fan sites keep meticulous track of every publicly-known event in the life of Moz. "The Wizards of Moz," a Nov. 19 LA Times article by David Lott, talks about Morrissey's Latino fans and the Latin Morrissey Tribute band, Jose Maldonado and The Sweet and Tender Hooligans, who regularly pack The Brave Bull in Los Angeles with Latin Morrisey fans eager to hear them cover his songs and songs by his old band, The Smiths. A Vancouver B.C. bar is named for the singer. The Morrissey celebrated its first birthday on Nov. 26, 2008 by giving away 100 CDs and Morrissey merchandise. The bar regularly plays songs by Morrissey.

Morrissey might speak of a higher love in interviews, but his personal relationships are hardly without conflict. "If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I'll eat meat. That's how much I hate Morrissey," Robert Smith of The Cure once said. Morrissey has openly criticized Madonna, Elton John, David Bowie and George Michael calling their lyrics pointless and saying they care more about celebrity than music. He has also openly criticized rap, band aid, The British Labour Party and The British Conservative Party, Oliver Cromwell, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. People have also publicly criticized Morrissey. Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant wrote two songs about him, "Getting Away With It" and "Miserablism."

Morrissey did say, however, during a Jan 2008 concert, "God Bless Barack Obama." More than one personal conflict has led him to court. In 1996, Mike Joyce sued Morrissey and Marr for recording and performance royalties from The Smiths. He prevailed, being awarded $1 million in back wages and 25% of royalties from then on. At the time, Morrissey told the court, "The Smiths were a beautiful thing and Johnny [Marr] left it, and Mike [Joyce] has destroyed it."

Rumors have always surrounded Morrissey, blown to mammoth proportion in the gossippy British music press.

He is currently taking legal action against the NME for defamation relating to a 2007 interview by Tim Jonze. According to a BBC News article, the magazine has declined to print a retraction or an apology. Tim Jonze asked to have his name removed from the article, saying he was unhappy with the way it was "rewritten" by the NME. After filing the suit, Morrissey released a detailed explanation through his online fan magazine, True To You, with a formally worded statement refuting the article's associated allegations of racism and an overall condemnation of racism itself, along with Morrissey's assertion that the NME's Editor deliberately changed the interview to make it more scandalous to boost what he called the paper's "Dwindling circulation." In 2008, BBC News reported that Word magazine was forced to apologize for an article by David Quanti about Morrissey.

"If I am a racist, then the Pope is female, which he isn't," Morrissey said in a 2004 article posted on Morrissey-solo.com. In 2004 he signed the Unite Against Facism statement. The BBC News reported that in 2008 he personally donated $75,000 to organizers of the Love Music Hate Racism concert in Victoria Park, London, after the NME withdrew their sponsorship.

Morrissey's outspoken views have led to nearly serious trouble in both the England and America. In addition to pop stars, Morrissey has also publicly criticized political figures including the British Royal Family and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and, especially, Margaret Thatcher. He stated in a 1984 interview, "She is only one person. She can be destroyed. It is the only remedy for this country at the moment." His album, Viva Hate, contained the track "Margaret On The Guillotine" ... a tongue-in-cheek song about Thatcher. As a result of the song, British police searched his home, although some of the police reportedly asked for Morrissey's autograph and allegedly were embarassed by the search. The police also questioned Sempa Reynolds, a writer for Melody Maker who had interviewed Morrissey about the album, asking about the singer's tone in making certain remarks about Thatcher.
Morrissey has also been investigated by the FBI related to remarks he made onstage about American President George W. Bush. He said in a 2008 interview about the incident in The Guardian, "The FBI and The Special Branch have investiaged me and I've been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government. It didn't take them long to realize that I am not."
Morrissey did not release an album for seven years between 1997's Maladjusted and You Are The Quarry in 2003, altough he continued to tour.

You Are The Quarry, released in 2004 was the fruit of a Sanctuary Records deal giving Morrissey control of one-time reggae label attack records, both to record his own new material and to sign new artists. He left Sanctuary Records in early 2007.
Morrissey's 2006 album Ringleader Of The Tormentors debuted at #1 on UK album charts and at #27 in the US. Tony Visconti, who worked with David Bowie, produced the album. it features new guitarist Jess Tobias. The album has been said to sound more rocking than any previous Morrissey work and the singer has called it "the most beautiful, prehaps the most gentle so far."

Morrissey signed a new deal with Decca in December 2007, releasing "That's How People Grow Up," the single then later the album, a greatest hits compilation, by the same name. The album made #5 on UK album charts and the single charted at #14.
The Years of Refusal, Morrissey's ninth solo album and his first in three years, entered the UK Charts at #3. The album's first single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," preceded its release by one week. The 12-track album, produced by Jerry Finn, was largely recorded live. THe album was leaked onto the internet on Jan 4, 2009. The baby Morrissey is holding on the cover, Sebastien Pesel-Browne, is the son of Charlie Browne, Morrisey's longtime Assistant Tour Manager. The baby's parents met at a Morrissey concert in Boston.

Morrissey has written three published books: The New York Dolls (1989), James Dean is Not Dead (1990), about the actor, and Exit Smiling, about B-movie actors, published in 1998. All three were published by Babylon Books.

On November 2008, Rolling Stone Magazine named Morrissey one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Rolling Stone compiled the list from ballots distributed to 178 "experts" in music who were asked to name their 20 favorite singers.

Morrissey will play the 2009 Coachella Valley Music Festival along with Blur and a reunited Faith No More, according to Consequence of Sound. He will play at the Manchester Apollo for his 50th birthday on Friday, May 22 and will be touring Ireland and Scotland throughout May 2009.