Audio released from controversial Morrissey interview after he denies Kevin Spacey and Donald Trump comments

Smiths frontman recently claimed that he had been misquoted by Germany's Der Spiegel

Audio has been released from a controversial Morrissey interview that saw the star make headlines for alleged comments made about Kevin Spacey and Donald Trump.

The former Smiths frontman made headlines in November after appearing to defend shamed actor Kevin Spacey in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, claiming that the star had been “unnecessarily attacked” over sexual assault allegations. In the same interview, he was also quoted as saying that he would kill Donald Trump for the safety of humanity.

The headlines led to Morrissey claiming that he had been misquoted, vowing to never do another print interview and saying: “Unless you see the words form in my mouth and then you see or hear the words come out of my mouth… please, if you don’t see that, I didn’t say them.”

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Then, this week, Morrissey released a statement, refuting many of the things he was quoted as saying in the Der Spiegel interview, writing: “Would I kill Donald Trump? No, never. Would I support Kevin Spacey’s private proclivities? No, never.”

After Morrissey said that he was denied a request for “unchopped, un-fiddled-with audio” of his interview, Der Spiegel has now released what it claims is the full, unedited audio from the 43-minute chat, which the publication asserts proves that the original interview did not “contain false or misleading citations”.

In the interview, Morrissey is heard calling Trump a “pest” and likening him to “a very small child”. Describing the President as “a danger to global security”, Morrissey is then asked would he “press a button” if it meant that Trump would “drop dead” as a result. He replies: “I would, for the safety of the human race.”

Morrissey live
Morrissey live

Later, Morrissey is asked if he had been following the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement. “To a point I did, but then it becomes a theatre, and suddenly everybody’s guilty,” he says. “Anybody who has ever said to a person, ‘I quite like you,’ suddenly they’re being accused of sexual harassment.”

He adds: “There are, of course, extreme cases – and rape is revolting, and any kind of physical attack is revolting – but we must keep it in perspective, otherwise everybody on the planet is guilty of everything.”

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When asked about the Kevin Spacey allegations, Morrissey says of Anthony Rapp’s claims that he was assaulted by the actor as a young teen: “As far as I understand the situation, [Spacey] was in a hotel room with a 14 year old. Well, Kevin Spacey was 26, the boy was 14. You have to wonder where the boy’s parents were. You have to assume he had an inkling of what might possibly happen. I mean, I don’t know about you but I’ve never been… in my youth I was never in situations like that. Never. And I was always aware of how things could go. If you were in somebody’s bedroom you’d have to be aware of where it could lead to and you’d have to say ‘Why are we here? Why aren’t we downstairs on the lobby?’ So it doesn’t ring quite true to me and it seem to me that he has quite unnecessarily attacked.”

You can listen to the audio in full here.

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