Mike Joyce: “To call Morrissey ‘complex’ is an understatement”

The 62-year-old drummer Mike Joyce speaking to the British newspaper The Times he remembered the time of his debut with the Smithsdefining the group’s frontman Morrissey such as ‘strange’ and ‘complex’.

Joyce formed the Smiths in 1982 together with the singer Morrisseyto the guitarist Johnny Marr and the bass player Andy Rourke. The band had great success but broke up, after releasing four studio albums, just five years later, in 1987.

The musician from Manchester recalls that Johnny Marr he was a born guitarist, while Morrissey he had a ‘strange’ energy, despite being a very talented singer and songwriter. “Johnny looked fantastic. Really disarming. Johnny looked like a born guitarist. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who carried a guitar over his shoulder like that guy did in 1982. Steven (Steven Patrick Morrissey, ed.) barely noticed my presence. He walked back and forth, at the edges of the room, like a pale, skinny caged animal in a long trench coat, without saying a word. Every now and then he looked up, but as soon as I tried to meet him look at him or glance at him, he would lower his eyes. Yes, it was strange.”

Joyce said that initially there was little chemistry between the two, and that the bond would only deepen after the band’s success. “We just didn’t have that kind of chemistry. I was the drummer; he was the singer. That’s all. Maybe Morrissey felt more comfortable in my presence, maybe he was a little more tolerant of our differences.”

The drummer also recalled the moment when Morrissey he reinvented his identity, abandoning his first name. “During a pause in conversation, Steve said to us, ‘I don’t want any of you to call me Steven anymore.’ He stopped, looked at us one by one, then continued, ‘From now on I just want to be called Morrissey.’”

Mike Joyce found himself embroiled in a legal battle with Morrissey and Marr for royalties, a case he ultimately won. Despite years of silence between them, he still talks about Morrissey with empathy and understanding. “When Morrissey couldn’t give someone bad news, it wasn’t out of laziness or arrogance. I think he really couldn’t. To call Morrissey a complex person is an understatement. He remains one of our truly great singers. There is a purity to his creative vision that is unmatched.”