Johnny Marr says Morrissey's political views haven't "impacted how I feel about the Smiths"

In a new interview with The Observer, Marr answered a series of questions from fans, including some famous faces such as Debbie Harry, Jason Williamson, Hans Zimmer and more.

One fan asked Marr whether "Morrissey’s recent political views" have "impacted how you feel about the Smiths", leading him to respond, "It hasn’t impacted how I feel about the Smiths. That’s all I can say about that. I’m certainly able to separate the past from the present. I don’t know whether you can separate the band from the man, but I can separate myself from the man and what I did, so when I do see how disappointed people are, it really does make me sad. But it’s completely out of my control. And I can only really do what is in my control. So I play Smiths songs for reasons that I think are real. And over the years I’ve tried to take care of the catalogue and the releases as much as I was able to. As I would have done anyway. So, you know, I see it the way everybody else sees it. I don’t have any answers. And I don’t want to have any answers."

Marr's response comes a couple of weeks after Morrissey asked his former bandmate (via an open letter) to "please stop mentioning my name" in interviews.

Morrissey wrote in the letter, "The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?"

Marr responded to Morrissey's post on Twitter, writing, "Dear Morrissey. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ?"