Morrissey Says He’s Been Treated For Cancer

As for now Moz says he’s feeling good. He was even feeling well enough to launch his European tour Monday night in Lisbon, Portugal.

Morrissey’s health has been in the news on numerous occasions in the past year and a half as he’s battled one illness after another, forcing him to cancel tour dates. But this is the first time he’s used the C-word.  

“They have scraped cancerous tissues four times already, but whatever,” Morrissey told El Mundo (via a translation on the Morrissey-Solo.com messageboard). “If I die, then I die. And if I don’t, then I don’t. Right now I feel good. I am aware that in some of my recent photos I look somewhat unhealthy, but that’s what illness can do. I’m not going to worry about that, I’ll rest when I’m dead.”

Morrissey didn’t say which type of cancer he was diagnosed with.

The former Smiths frontman brought up death once again in his answer to El Mundo’s next question about whether he was worried that he and his traditional style of pop could become “an antique.”

Morrisesey replied, “I’m at an age when one should no longer be making music. Many composers of classical music died at age 34. And I’m still here, and nobody knows what to do with me. The audience that I have is very young, which leads me to think that the songs of the Smiths, as with those of the Ramones, are more significant now than before.”

Of course, as El Mundo points out, every time Morrissey opens his mouth, we’re treated to an “atomic bomb.” The ever enthralling artist commented on the troubles he’s had with his former record label, in addition to sharing his thoughts on bullfighting, the referendum in Scotland, why he prefers cats over dogs, the progress he’s made on his first novel, and why he doesn’t need a social life.

Last year Morrissey suffered double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and a gastrointestinal condition known as Barrett’s esophagus, on top of separate incidents of food poisoning and a concussion. And in June he called off his U.S. tour because of a respiratory infection.

But he’s back on the road now, with dates lined up in Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Germany and England. The European tour continues with an Oct. 13 show in Rome.