Morrissey Tour: Smiths Vocalist Calls It Quits In South America Due To Lack of Funding and Illness

Morrissey doesn't have a reputation for being the happiest of guys, but vocalist and former Smiths member seemed to hit a low point when announcing via his blog that his South American tour would be cancelled, citing a lack of funds.

"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," he wrote. "It's quite easy to sell tickets, yet impossible to transport band and crew from F to G."

Promoters for the 14 dates on the tour insisted to The Guardian that sales were going well, with each date having sold at least 80 percent of its available tickets up to that point. Some alternative explanations were that an earlier bout of food poisoning suffered by much of the musician's crew may have cost the band too much to recoup from the tour, or that the tour has reached the limits of its insurance coverage.

Morrissey and the rest of the crew arrived in Peru a few weeks ago, and almost all fell immediately ill due to a case of severe food poisoning. The vocalist himself has suffered from other various ailments throughout the year. He was forced to cancel the final 22 dates on his North American tour earlier in 2013 because of a bleeding ulcer and double pneumonia. After the last bit of bad news, Morrissey seemed to be ready to throw in the towel.

"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," he wrote. "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."

It would take something bigger than illness to cancel his upcoming concert film, "Morrissey 25: Live," which celebrates his 25th year as a solo performer.

Tags

Morrissey, The Smiths, Johnny Marr