Morrissey is no stranger to a scorched bridge, listen to any of The Smith’s songs. More recently though, he aimed the fire at American pop duo Sparks.
Morrissey recently called the duo “headless Palisades savages who threw their old friends into hot molten lava for sexy kicks.”
The barb came via Instagram, where Morrissey posted a string of ’90s-era photos, including a handwritten note from Ron and Russell Mael. What should’ve been a harmless throwback quickly spiralled into another chapter of Morrissey’s long-running feud habit.
It’s not the first time things have turned sour in his orbit, but this one stings more than most. Morrissey and Sparks weren’t just acquaintances, they’d been tight for years. He championed them early on, even writing to NME in the ’70s as a teenage fan.
In return, Sparks released 2009’s ‘Lighten Up Morrissey’—a jab that Morrissey allegedly loved. According to Russell Mael, he even used the track’s video in his pre-show montage.
But by 2018, the mutual admiration was done. In an interview with the Press Association, Mael slammed Morrissey’s political takes, calling them “stupid” and “ill-conceived.”
The fallout between the two was public and immediate. Morrissey later told his nephew in a 2021 interview that he wasn’t shocked by the betrayal, he was gutted. “I stood by Sparks for many years… I was surprised they kicked me in the teeth,” he said. “It came across as an almost fiendish ingratitude.”
The new insult is classic Morrissey: theatrical, bitter, and rooted in a deep sense of personal loyalty gone wrong. It’s less about politics at this point, and more about the sting of losing another ally in a long list of fallouts.
Still, even Morrissey can’t fully write them off. “They will always be important to me as a memory,” he added before metaphorically pushing them into the lava himself.
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