Morrissey’s latest US tour, which wraps tonight, reportedly didn’t sell too well. Perhaps it has something to do with the former Smiths singer’s recent uptick in racist and xenophobic rhetoric. Whatever the cause, it looks like Moz has found a fascinating and (as always) controversial way to make up any financial deficit: signing other artists’ records and selling them for a ridiculously high markup of $300.
At Morrissey’s Saturday night show at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, autographed copies of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, Patti Smith’s Horses, Lou Reed’s Transformer, and Iggy & the Stooges’ Raw Power were all available at the merch stand. Except the signatures on the LPs were Morrissey’s, written so they read “Morrissey loves David/Patti/Lou/Iggy” (via NME).
If scrawling your name on someone else’s work isn’t peak hubris, selling such defacements for $300 a pop certainly is. Even worse, autographed copies of Morrissey’s own LPs were going for only $200 each. So is the logic here that Moz’s name makes other people’s art more valuable than his own? As if his recent reputation has tarnished his own legacy but can still somehow raise someone else’s.
The signed albums weren’t the only notable piece of merch Morrissey was hawking. There was also a T-shirt that read, “Fuck the Guardian,” a marketable response to the British paper’s coverage of his support for far-right political group For Britain. He even wore the shirt onstage during the Hollywood Bowl performance.
Morrissey’s arrogant and frankly offensive merchandising habits may already be inspiring some fans to stage another protest, but be forewarned: Moz is just going to say any dissenters are paid by the press.
#Morrissey pic.twitter.com/PXW4SJMiEy
— FΛBIΛП (@HoIdenMorrissey) October 27, 2019
