Morrissey “apologises” to Robert Smith of The Cure for 80s insults

26 June 2019, 02:00 | Updated: 26 June 2019, 02:01

The former Smiths man regrets his pop star beef with the Cure frontman over 30 years ago in a new interview - in which he re-stated his support the For Britain party.

Morrissey has claimed that he now regrets comments he made in the 1980s about fellow alternative rock star Robert Smith of The Cure.

The Smiths frontman had an ongoing beef in the weekly music press with the shock-haired frontman, calling the singer a “whingebag” and that The Cure “a new dimension to the word 'crap.’”

Replying to the latter comment, made in the NME in 1989, Smith scoffed: “At least we've only added a new dimension in crap, not built a career out of it." The Cure’s singer also famously said: “If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I’m going to eat meat; that’s how much I hate Morrissey."

Morrissey - Morning Starship (Official Audio)

But it seems that Morrissey has mellowed a touch in his old age - at least on this score. In a new interview with his nephew Sam Esty Rayner on www.morrisseycentral.com, the former Smiths frontman was asked if he had any “small regrets”.

Morrissey replied: “Oh, I never make my regrets small … if I can help it. Oh. Umm. Robert Smith. I said some terrible things about him 35 years ago … but I didn’t mean them … I was just being very Grange Hill. It’s great when you can blame everything on Tourette’s syndrome.”

Smith still claims he has never met Morrissey, but the latter confessed that he saw the Cure frontman in a pub “near Buckingham Palace”: “There he was … staring over confrontationally. I take no moral responsibility for whatever I said in 1983 … after all … who does?”

The lengthy interview also includes Morrissey’s claims that the fire at Notre Dame cathedral was “arson” (“Everybody knows that”), denials that he supports UKIP (although Nigel Farage “would make a good Prime Minister”) and reaffirms his support for the controversial political party For Britain, claiming that “Anne Marie Waters is the only British party leader who can unite the left and right”.

The singer also discussed racism, saying: “Everyone ultimately prefers their own race … does this make everyone racist? The people who reduce every conversation down to a matter of race could be said to be the most traditionally “racist” because everything in life is NOT exclusively a question of race, so why make it so? Diversity can’t possibly be a strength if everyone has ideas that will never correspond.”

He added: “I can’t see how opposing Halal slaughter makes me racist when I’ve objected to ALL forms of animal slaughter all of my life.”

The Cure headline Glastonbury this weekend (30 June), while Morrissey’s next live dates are in the US in September.