Morrissey cancels full South American tour, labels it “the final straw”

The “last of many final straws” in “a year when far too many disappointments have been buried”, as the artist himself says, Morrissey has scrapped the rest of his remaining South American tour dates.

In a new statement released online, the former Smiths singer confirmed that the previously-postponed live stint, previously hindered by a bout of food poisoning, has now been cancelled altogether due to “lack of funding”.

Morrissey’s health condition has deteriorated recently, having battled double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and throat condition Barrett’s oesophagus over the last few months.

Read the complete statement below:

“I am informed today that the projected tour of South America is snuffed out, thus euthanized – due, I’m reliably advised, to lack of funding. It’s quite easy to sell tickets, yet impossible to transport band and crew from F to G.
In a year when far too many disappointments have been buried this really is the last of many final straws, and I am not alone in feeling this. The future is suddenly absent, and my apologies are now so frequent as to be somewhat ridiculous, and it is I who apologize because no one else would bother. It is agonizing to be responsible for imparting such news – especially when it springs upon me unexpectedly and inexplicably. But the collapse of South America rings the curtain down with a colossal thud, and the major problems remain as insoluble now as they were in 2009. The obvious conclusion stares back at me from the mirror, and the wheels are finally off the covered wagon. Cancellations and illness have sucked the life out of all of us, and the only sensible solution seems to be the art of doing nothing.
As always I ask your pardon, and I offer pangs of overwhelming love and gratitude to the band and the crew, whose loyalty stretched above and beyond.

I shall see you in my dreams,
Morrissey
19 July 2013, Los Angeles”

[via DIY]