English singer-songwriter Morrissey said Monday he has been dumped by his record label.
“This news is perfectly in keeping with the relentless galvanic horror of 2020,” the 61-year-old said. “We would be critically insane to expect anything positive.”
A statement on the singer’s website said BMG has a new executive “who does not want another Morrissey album” and that “all projected BMG Morrissey releases/reissues have been scrapped.”
Morrissey released three albums with BMG: 2017’s Low in High School, 2019’s California Son and this year’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain.
“My three albums with BMG have been the best of my career, and I stand by them till death,” he said. “Recording them has been a pivotal period in my life, and I thank the previous BMG team and everyone involved for that.
“It’s still important to me to do music my own way, and I wouldn’t want to be on a label that dictates so specifically how their artists should behave – especially when the word ‘talent’ is notably never mentioned.”
Morrissey has recorded 13 solo studio albums since 1988 and did four while frontman of The Smiths. In 2006, he vowed never to perform in Canada – which he called “the cruellest and most self-serving nation" – unless the annual seal hunt was banned, but he announced a Canadian tour last year. Several dates were later postponed.
His residency Viva Moz Vegas is scheduled to run at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5, 2021.