Last year, Morrissey tried to sell The Smiths — not a song, not a share, but the band’s name, artwork, and merchandising rights. This year, he’s selling merchandise that replaces “The Smiths” with “Morrissey” on artwork inspired by two classic Smiths albums.
The designs, based on 1985’s Meat Is Murder and 1986’s The Queen Is Dead, have quietly appeared on the UK version of MPORIUM, Morrissey’s official online store. Both closely mirror the original album artwork, swapping the band’s name for Morrissey’s in nearly identical typography while retaining the familiar layouts. While the Queen Is Dead shirt has already sold out, the Meat Is Murder design remains available for $48.
The shirts arrive roughly a year after Morrissey publicly attempted to sell his interests in The Smiths. In a September 2025 post titled “A Soul for Sale,” he announced he was offering his stake in the band’s name, artwork, recordings, publishing, and merchandising rights to any interested buyer, writing that he wanted to become “disassociated” from the group. No sale was ever announced.
The move follows another chapter in Morrissey’s years-long public dispute with former bandmate Johnny Marr. In 2024, Morrissey claimed he had accepted an offer to reunite The Smiths for a world tour, only for Marr to reject it. Marr disputed Morrissey’s account, saying he had simply declined the proposal.
Ownership of The Smiths’ name has also been a point of contention. Morrissey has accused Marr of registering the band’s trademark without his knowledge. In response, Marr maintained he did so only after Morrissey failed to respond to efforts to protect it jointly, and later transferred half ownership back to him. The two are understood to share the band’s rights.
Just days before the shirts appeared, Morrissey publicly resumed his decades-long war of words with Marr, accusing his former bandmate of trying to “destroy the legacy” of The Smiths in a since-deleted open letter prompted by an upcoming BBC documentary. Read more about that latest exchange here.
Taken together, the shirts are difficult to separate from that broader history. Whatever the intent, they transform two of alternative rock’s most recognizable album covers into Morrissey merch. The names on the front have changed. The albums behind them haven’t.
The Queen Is Dead celebrated its 40th anniversary on June 16th. Revisit why the landmark LP continues to resonate four decades later in our retrospective on the album here.
